ADBD plasma surface treatment of PES fabric sheets

Abstract

Plasma treatment of textile fabrics is investigated as an alternative to the environmentally hazardous wet chemical fabric treatment and pretreatment processes. Plasma treatment usually results in modification of the uppermost atomic layers of a material surface and leaves the bulk characteristics unaffected. It may result in desirable surface modifications, e.g. surface etching, surface activation, cross-linking, chain scission and oxidation. Presented paper contains results of the applicability study of the atmospheric pressure dielectric discharge (ADBD), i.e. dielectric barrier discharge sustaining in air at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature for synchronous treatment of several sheets of fabric. For tests sheets of polyester fabric were used. Effectivity of the modification process was determined with hydrophilicity measurements evaluated by means of the drop test. Hydrophilicity of individual sheets of fabric has distinctly increased after plasma treatment. Plasma induced surface changes of textiles were also proven by identification of new functional groups at the modified polyester fabric surface. Existence of new functional groups was detected by ESCA scans. For verification of surface changes we also applied high-resolution microphotography. It has shown distinct variation of the textile surface after plasma treatment. Important aspect for practical application of the plasma treatment is the modification effect time-stability, i.e. time stability of acquired surface changes of the fabric. The recovery of hydrophobicity was fastest in first days after treatment, later gradually diminished until reached almost original untreated state.