Superhydrophobic surfaces have been successfully prepared by sol-gel method using water glass as starting material. Such surfaces were obtained first by dip-coating the silica hydrosols prepared via hydrolysis and condensation of water glass onto cotton substrates, then the surface of the silica coating was modified with a non-fluoro, compound, hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS), to gain a thin film through self-assembly, superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle higher than 151 degrees can be achieved. The morphology and surface roughness were characterized by SEM and AFM. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.