Investigation of the Effect of Different Plasma Treatment Condition on the Properties of Wool Fabrics

Abstract

In this study, oxygen and nitrogen plasma treatment was carried out on wool fabrics during 5, 10 and 15 minutes at low (LF) (40 kHz) and radio (RF) (13.59 MHz) frequency. Then the effect of plasma treatment on tear strength, contact angle, whiteness and yellowness index of wool fabrics was investigated. In addition, the hydrophility of plasma treated samples was analyzed after the washing. The physical and chemical properties of wool fabrics treated with oxygen and nitrogen plasma were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). According to the results, nitrogen plasma treatment improved the tear strength of samples. Furthermore, plasma treatment increased the yellowness of samples while decreasing the whiteness index of samples. The hydrophility of samples decreases with plasma treatment and with the increase in plasma treatment time. Moreover, SEM results showed that the plasma treatment caused to occur deformations on the surfaces. Lastly, EDX results showed that the amount of oxygen and nitrogen increased in the surfaces after oxygen and nitrogen plasma treatment.