Developing Super-Hydrophobic and Abrasion-Resistant Wool Fabrics Using Low-Pressure Hexafluoroethane Plasma Treatment

Abstract

The growing interest in wool fibres as an eco-friendly and sustainable material for diverse industrial applications requires an enhancement of their functional performance. To address this, wool fabrics were treated in the present research with low-pressure hexafluoroethane (C2F6) plasma to impart superhydrophobicity and improve their abrasion resistance. Unscoured and scoured wool fabrics were treated with C2F6 while varying plasma power (80 W and 150 W), gas flow rate (12 sccm and 50 sccm) and treatment time (6 min and 20 min), and the effect of plasma parameters on the abrasion resistance, water contact angle and dyeing behaviour of the wool fabrics was studied. Martindale abrasion testing showed that the surface abrasion of the wool fabrics increased with the number of abrasion cycles, and the samples treated with 150 W, 20 min, 12 sccm showed superior abrasion resistance. The scoured wool fabrics showed a contact angle of ~124°, which was stable for only 4 min 40 s, whereas the plasma-treated samples showed a stable contact angle of over 150°, exhibiting a stable superhydrophobic behaviour. The C2F6 plasma treatment also significantly reduced the exhaustion of an acid dye by wool fabrics. The EDX study confirmed the deposition of fluorine-containing elements on the wool fabrics significantly altering their properties.

A Sustainable Approach to a Cleaner Production of Antimicrobial and Biocompatible Protein Fibers

“…Citric acid facilitates the formation of crosslinks with wool polypeptide chains, and is capable of forming amide linkage with the -NH 2 groups of wool ( Figure 9 ) [ 38 ]. The chemical change caused by the UV treatment is due to surface oxidation of cysteine (disulfide bonds) and induces changes in the dyeing properties of the wool (due to the increased diffusion coefficient of the dyes in the treated wool fibers) [ 39 ].…”

Adenosine Triphosphate/Chitin Whisker/Phenylboronic Acid-Modified Wool Fabrics with Enhanced Dyeability

“…However, some metal ion mordant agents used for enhancing natural dye uptake are mostly toxic and hazardous to both the environment and human health [8,9]. Therefore, it is crucial to improve the dyeability of wool fabrics through bio-friendly procedures to extend the availability of wool products [10,11]. In this regard, numerous efforts have been made to promote the dyeability of wool [12,13].…”

“…Chitin is a natural biological polysaccharide made of linked N-acetylglucosamine subunits, existing in crab and shrimp shells, insect exoskeletons, and fungi cell walls [10,11,24]. Recently, Chitin whisker, as a chitin derivative, has been widely used in many food and biomedical areas as a functional reinforcing material and nanofiller due to its high crystallinity and aspect ratio, non-toxicity, easy availability, and variability [25][26][27][28].…”

Investigating the Efficacy of Plasma Washing for Stains Removal

“…Previous reports primarily focused on plasma treatment in the textile industry for fabric surface modification, enhanced dye adoption, hydrophobic fabric, abrasion resistance, stain resistance, and antimicrobial/anti-odor properties (20)(21)(22)(23)(24). Notably, plasma washing of fabrics is absent in existing literature as per best of authors literature survey.…”