PLASMA TECHNOLOGY IN TEXTILE PROCESSING

Bengi KUTLU and Dr. Aysun CIRELI Dokuz Eylul University, Textile Engineering Department 35100, Bornova-IZMIR Phone: + 90 232 388 28 69 Fax: + 90 232 388 78 67 bengi.kutlu@deu.edu.tr

Plasma is a quite new technology for the textile industry. It offers many advantages against wet techniques. There are no harmful chemicals, wet processes, wastewater, and mechanical hazards to textiles, etc. Plasma technology is an environmentally friendly and ecological technique. In addition to these, it has a specific action on the surface and gives surface some properties that cannot be obtained by conventional techniques. In plasma treatment, also all type of fibers and textiles can be treated. One of the definitions of plasma is that plasma is a partially ionized gas. On the other hand, it has no electrical load totally. Components forming plasma are neutral atoms and molecules, ions, photons, atoms which are excited state and free electrons. Plasma properties which affect textile surfaces are electrons with high energy. In contrary to hot plasmas occur in sun; other plasmas work at room temperatures. Because, plasma energy in cold plasmas is limited by energies of electrons with low mass. There are different ways to produce plasma: GlowDischarge, Corona Discharge and Dielectric Barrier Discharge. Air, oxygen, argon, fluorine, helium, carbon dioxide or their mixtures can be used as plasma medium. The process result is affected by the type of the gas used. Although the gas the same, if the fiber type is different the result will be different. Textiles can be treated between two electrodes (in fact in the plasma) or near the plasma region. In the figure (Yousefi et al.), there are a schematic view of plasma device and different reactive species.

Plasma process changes an almost inert surface into a reactive one. In the prospect of chemical finishing using plasma, two main methods can be considered: grafting of a compound on the fiber or surface modification by means of discharges. Although plasma treatments occur at the surface, a small part of the fiber mass, fiber-polymer surface characteristics have an important role in the mechanical and chemical processing of fibers, yarns and fabrics. For any fiber type, a plasma treatment changes one or more of the following qualities; water absorption and wetting, adhesion, dyeing and dye fastness, shade depth of dyed fabrics, antistaticity desizing, water and oil repellence, soil release, wear and chemical resistance, biocompatibility of the synthetic material with blood etc. Plasma processes can be applied natural and synthetic fibers: It makes wool descaled, soft, antifelt. The dyeing kinetics of wool improves. Cellulose fibers become more hydrophilic and reactive. Dyeing behaviors of fibers change. The fiber matrixes of synthetic fibers are changed and the layers closed to diffusion are opened by plasma treatments. It is possible to list large amount of properties gained by plasma processes. If the disadvantages of plasma treatments, such as the high cost of the plasma device, can be eliminated, this technology will be valid and very important method for the textile finishing industry.

REFERENCES Choi, H.H., Lee, S.G. & Joo, C.W. (2001). Effect of Plasma Treatment on the Characteristics of Polypropylene Spunbond (PP/SB) Nonwoven, The 6th Asian Textile Conference, Innovation & Globalization, Procedings, August 22-24, 2001, Hong Kong Dai, X.J.& Kviz, L. (2001). Study of Atmospheric and Low Pressure Plasma Modification on the Surface Properties of Synthetic and Natural Fibres, An Odyssey in Fibres and Space Textile Institute 81st World Conference, April 2001,Melbourne, Australia Kan, C.W., Chan, K. & Yuen, C.W.M. (2001). Development of Low Temperature Plasma Technology on Wool, The 6th Asian Textile Conference, Innovation & Globalization, Procedings, August 22-24, 2001, Hong Kong Karadeniz, S., (1989) Plazma Teknii. Ders Notlar, zmir Kim, M.S. & Kang, T.J. (2002). Dimensional and Surface Properties of Plasma and Silicone Treated Wool Fabric. Textile Research Journal 72(2), 113-120 McCord, M.G., Hwang, Y.J., Hauser, P.J., Qu, Y., Cuomo, J.J., Hankins, O.E. & Bourham, M.A. (2002). Modifying Nylon and Polypropylene Fabrics with Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas. Textile Research Journal 72(6), 491-498 Pastore, C. M. & Kiekens, P. (2001). Surface Characteristics of Fibers and Textiles. Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York Yousefi, H.R. et al. (2003) Investigation of glow discharge plasma for surface modification of polypropylene. Surface and Interface Analysis, 2003; 35: 1015-1017. Verschuren, J. & Kiekens, P. (2001). Plasma Technology for Textiles: Where Are We?, International Textile and Apparel Symposium, April 2001, eme-Izmir, Turkey.