Atmospheric-air plasma enhances coating of different lubricating agents on polyester fiber

¹ Young Researchers Club, Islamic Azad University, Shahre Rey Branch, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
² Department of Organic Colorants, Institute for Color Science and Technology, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
³ Department of Textile, Islamic Azad University, Shahre Rey Branch, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

^a e-mail: mparvinzadeh@gmail.com

Received: 22 December 2010
Revised: 2 February 2011
Accepted: 30 June 2011
Published online: 28 September 2011

Abstract

This research work involves the plasma treatment of polyethylene terephthalate fiber to improve performance of various ionic lubricating agents. To do this, polyester fabric was pre-scoured with detergent, treated with atmospheric-air plasma and then coated with anionic, cationic and nonionic emulsions. Chemical and physical properties of samples were investigated by the use of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), bending lengths (BL), wrinkle recovery angles (WRA), fiber friction coefficient analysis (FFCA), moisture absorbency (MA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and reflectance spectroscopy (RS). Study on chemical properties of fibers revealed that the plasma pretreatment modifies the surface of fibers and increases the reactivity of substrate toward various ionic emulsions. Physical properties of textiles indicated that the combination of plasma and emulsion treatments on polyester can improve crease resistant, drapeability and water repellency due to uniform coating of various emulsions on surface of textiles.