Abstract
Investigations, which are related to plasma efficiency on the treated leather surface, are significant in the development of ecologically and economically friendly processes in obtaining material of desired functional properties. Through the pretreatments using plasma different chemical-physical reactions in the surface layer of treated leather are occurred resulting in improved reactivity. In this paper, modification and functionalization of bovine leather using 1,2,3,4-butantetracarboxylic acid and chitosan were explored. Pretreatments of leather samples were realised using argon and oxygen plasma to assess various influence of chemically reactive oxygen and inert argon gas. Two different bovine leathers -chrome tanned leather and leather tanned with synthetic tanning agent (Cr-free) were chosen for treatments. Analyse of the surface morphology was conducted with SEM microscopy, while the chemical changes using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. Antimicrobial effectiveness of treated leather was tested with qualitative Agar diffusion plate test against two bacterial Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Obtained results indicated how applied oxygen and argon plasma pretreatments in optimized process conditions contribute to the improvement of tested functional properties. Achieved surface changes positively affected on leather surface reactivity and antimicrobial effectiveness, particularly Cr-free leather.
Highlights
The leather industry is one of the huge polluters of the environment, because of that it is important to develop environmentally friendly procedures
By comparing the spectra shown in Fig. 6., the intensity of the absorption bands of the treated samples is observed in relation to the untreated ones at 2922 cm-1, 1633 cm-1, 1550 cm-1, 1453 cm-1 and 797 cm-1, which indicate that intense vibrations occur on the –NH, NH2, –CH, –CH2 groups and –C=O groups, which show that polycarboxylic acid (BTCA) and chitosan are very likely to bind to the substrate surface
Morphological changes of leather samples after pretreatment with oxygen and argon plasma were confirmed by analysis of scanning electron microscope (SEM) images where the 'cleaning' of the surfaces of the chromium tanned and Cr-free tanned sample is visible
Summary
The leather industry is one of the huge polluters of the environment, because of that it is important to develop environmentally friendly procedures. A major problem is the proven treatments, which are mainly carried out by conventional procedures, and are most often very harmful to the environment. The use of plasma as a medium for property modification is an acceptable technique because its application could completely replace, or at least shorten the processing time and use of large amounts of water and chemicals in order to achieve the desired properties of leather product. Plasma treatment impact to the modification surface layer of the treated leather, resulting in the surface cleaning and its activation achieving better hydrophilicity (absorptivity) for some new chemical reactions. At low-pressure plasma, it is possible to apply chemical agents in monomeric form, which have the ability to polymerize with the substrate, whereby cleavage or crosslinking of the agents on the surface can take place, in order to achieve and /or improve the functional properties [1]
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