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Dewaxing of gray cotton fabric is an important operation in the dyeing process, Instead of the conventional wet scouring process, oxygen low temperature plasma treatment was applied to gray cotton fabric. The low temperature plasma treatment was useful technic to remove the surface cotton wax. In order to confirm the practical effect, two kinds of cotton fabric which were treated with the conventional scouring and the low temperature plasma processes, were processed subsequently bleaching, mercerizing, dyeing, and finishing under the same conditions. The qualities of both fabrics were almost the same, but it seems likely that the consumptions of chemicals, water, and energy by low temperature plasma process are much less than those of conventional one. The scouring time by conventional process was reduced to one twentyth by the low temperature plasma process.

Polyester fabrics were pretreated with poly (ethylene glycol) with average molecular weight from 400 to 10, 000, and then low temperature plasma treatment were carried out using air, oxygen, nitrogen, and argon. After washing with hot water or home laundering, antistatic, hydrophilic, and oil release properties of the treated polyester fabrics were measured. The change in fiber surface structure was analyzed by ESCA. A polyester film sample was also treated by oxygen plasma after the poly (ethylene glycol) pretreatment. The surface free energy of the film was calculated from the Zisman plot and the extended Fowkes equation. Polyester fabrics with excellent antistatic, hydrophilic and oil release properties were obtained by low temperature plasma treatment after poly (ethylene glycol) pretreatment. These properties were retained after heat treatment and repeated home laundering. The ESCA analysis confirmed that pretreated poly (ethylene glycol) reacted with the polyester fiber during the low temperature plasma treat ment.

Mesures de mouillabilite, perte de masse, spectrometrie photoelectronique RX et microscopie electronique a balayage

Poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and nylon 6 films were treated with low temperature plasma in various gases, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, helium, argon, methane, tetrafluoromethane, trifluoromethane, monochlorotrifluoromethane, and tetramethylsilane. The contact angles of various liquids of different surface tensions on the plasma-treated films were measured. The lowest surface tension γc (Zisman) and the highest surface tension γc (max) of the polymers were determined on the basis of the Zisman plots. Furthermore, the contributions of nonpolar dispersion, dipole, and hydrogen bonding forces to the surface tensions for the plasma-modified polymers were evaluated by the extended Fowkes equation. In addition, the plasma-treated samples were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ESCA). The change in surface free energy of the plasma-treated films was correlated with their surface chemical compositions measured by ESCA.

Low temperature plasma treatment is of interest as one of the techniques to modify polymer surface. It has been reported that the treatment offers a good shrink resistance property for wool fabrics. In this study, Merino wool fibers were treated with plasma in oxygen, tetrafluoromethane, and tetramethylsilane. The frictional coefficients of the direction with and against scale, μ1 and μ2, respectively, were measured in dry and wet conditions by using a Roder's apparatus. The plasmatreated wool fabrics showed an excellent shrink resistance property similar to the descaled wool fabrics prepared by DCCA and Dylan methods. Electron micrographs of the surface of the plasmamodified wool showed little damage of the scale. It was found that the dry frictional coefficients, μ1 and μ2, are increased by the plasma treatment, whereas the value of μ2-μ1 is decreased as compared to that of the untreated wool. Both values of wet frictional coefficients and μ2-μ1 were greatly increased. The effect of plasma treatment on the frictional coefficients of polyester, nylon 6, and cotton fibers were also studied and discussed on the basis of the surface structure and properties.