Durable antibacterial cotton fabric imitating skin wet management with synchronous liquid gating and directional liquid transfer

Antibacterial textiles that repel external liquids while synchronously transport internal sweat to keep comfort moisture balance are desirable. However, very limited success has been achieved to construct such textiles. Herein, a facile approach to create durable antibacterial cotton fabric with skin-like wet management was proposed. The first step involved several minutes (< 5) dip-coating subsequently with PA and Cu2+, which afforded Cu enriched surfaces endowing highly efficient (99.95% in 2 h for E. coli, 99.99% in 2 h for S. aureus) and durable antibacterial activity (> 99.95% after 50 times washing treatment). The following step further paved a way of skin-like wet management by the construction of dotted wetting gradient on superhydrophobic background via transient exposure to a vapor mixture of methylchlorosilanes and successive patterned plasma etching. The liquid could only be transferred in the direction of the wetting gradient and was stopped when the fabric was faced against it, featuring synchronous antifouling and unidirectional water transmission so as to avoid wet clicking of the fabric with high air permeability even in a wet environment. This study opens a way for developing advanced fabrics which voluntarily release human sweat and meanwhile restrain microbial development obviating bacterial infection.