A Parameter Study of the Effect of a Plasma-Induced Ozone Colour-Fading Process on Sulphur-Dyed Cotton Fabric

Dan Zhong,Yao-Hui Liu,Hong Chua,Ngan-Ting Cheung,Chi-Wai Kan

doi:10.3390/pr6070081

Abstract

A plasma-induced ozone colour-fading treatment was used for treating a blue sulphur-dyed knitted cotton fabric. Since the process parameters of plasma-induced ozone colour-fading treatment are inter-related with one other, the final colour-fading results are affected. An orthogonal array testing strategy (OATS) method was used for determining the optimum conditions of the plasma-induced ozone colour-fading treatment in this study. Three process parameters used in the plasma-induced ozone colour-fading treatment, i.e., oxygen gas concentration (%), water content in fabric (%), and treatment time (minutes), were used in the optimization process. Experimental results reveal the optimum conditions for fading the colour by plasma-induced ozone colour-fading treatment are: (1) oxygen gas concentration = 70%; (2) water content in fabric = 35%; and (3) treatment time = 30 min. The order of importance of these parameters is: oxygen gas concentration > water content in fabric > treatment time. In addition, the plasma-induced ozone colour-fading treatment can effectively remove the colour from the dyed fabric and the colour-fading effect is uniform and even.

Highlights

Colour fading of textile apparel has attracted much attention recently because of high customer acceptance of such materials in the market [1,2]
We have investigated the possibility of using oxygen plasma treatment in atmospheric pressure conditions for achieving a colour-fading effect on dyed cotton fabric [6,14]
For a better colour-fading effect introduced by plasma-induced ozone fading treatment, K/S value of the sulphur-dyed fabric knitted cotton fabric is reduced

Summary

Introduction

Colour fading of textile apparel has attracted much attention recently because of high customer acceptance of such materials in the market [1,2]. There are many different colour-fading processes that can be used for such textile applications [3,4,5]. Much of the conventional colour-fading processes involve the use of large quantities of water and chemicals, which increases the generation of effluents [6,7]. Some have contemplated the use of sustainable technologies for replacing conventional chemical processes in textile applications. Plasma treatment is viewed as a possible way to substitute conventional chemical processes because it is a dry process and with the use of suitable reactive gas, the desired final effect can be achieved [8,9,10,11,12,13]. UV light is generated as a by-product during plasma treatment with

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Conclusion