Characterization and effect of atmospheric corona plasma on grey knit polyester fabric

Abstract

The use of chemical compounds in dyeing is still dominant. This results in the redundant use of water for the washing. Therefore, there needs to be a research on an alternative method. This research is aimed at understanding the effect of both positive and negative corona plasma irradiations on fabric. It is expected that characteristics of voltage, current, and electrode spacing, as well as ion mobility from the corona plasma will be known, both for with and without grey polyester knit fabric. Other than that, dampness characteristics of the grey polyester knit fabric will also be known. Plasma discharge is generated using point-plane electrode configuration connected to a high voltage DC power supply. The number of point electrodes is 100. Meanwhile, irradiation on the fabric is performed by putting the grey polyester knit on top of the plane electrode. Characterization was then carried out by varying the voltage, spacing of both point and plane electrodes, with and without the fabric. Other than that, variation was also made for the duration of grey polyester knit fabric irradiation. The next step was water drop test to observe 1 mL water absorption on the grey polyester knit. Results show that adding potential difference increases the current of corona spark plasma discharge for both positive and negative current corona discharges. The same case was also observed when the plasma discharge was irradiated on the plane electrode, either with or without the grey polyester knit fabric. The presence of grey polyester knit altered discharge mobility in that the small spacing of the fabric increases mobility for both negative and positive corona discharge. Hence, the further the electrodes spacing, the less mobile charge particles become. Results of water drop test show that longer irradiation on the fabric speeds up water absorption in the grey polyester knit fabric, both for positive and negative corona irradiations.