Environmental impact of plasma application to textiles

Abstract

Plasma technology is currently implemented in a wide range of industrial processes due to high efficiency, low environmental impact and simplicity. Low-temperature plasma treatment can be an alternative to traditional wet processes in textile preparation and finishing, causing modification of the fibre surface, which is mainly responsible for the material end-use properties i.e. wettability, dyeability, printability, shrinking, pilling etc. Appropriate choice of gas and control of plasma operation conditions provide a variety of effects on textiles (improvement of dyeability, printability and colour fastness, improvement of adhesion properties of coated fabrics, increase in hydrophobicity and water resistance, etc.). However, in spite of extraordinary efficiency, multifunctionality and simplicity, low-temperature plasma treatments still cannot replace all wet finishing processes, though they can be viable pretreatments that offer plenty of environmental and economical benefits.

A review of low-temperature plasma treatment of textile materials

“…And above all these, LTP technology has a great potential to limit the environmental impact of textile processing and contribute towards sustainable development [190]. The environmental benefits from the application of plasma technology in finishing treatment are the followings [3]:…”

“…Nevertheless, it is still capable of contributing towards environment protection. Indeed, if used as a pre-treatment, plasma treatment can markedly improve the water absorption of fabrics, thereby reducing the amount of chemical substances needed in conventional processing with better exhaustion of chemicals from the bath [3]. Moreover, shortening of the wet processing time and decreasing the required wet processing temperature may save limited energy resources [3].…”

“…Indeed, if used as a pre-treatment, plasma treatment can markedly improve the water absorption of fabrics, thereby reducing the amount of chemical substances needed in conventional processing with better exhaustion of chemicals from the bath [3]. Moreover, shortening of the wet processing time and decreasing the required wet processing temperature may save limited energy resources [3]. Sun and Sytlios [139] highlighted that LTP oxygen pre-treatment improved scouring and dyeing processing of wool and cotton fabrics by nearly 50 %.…”

“…Moreover, the treatment time (just a few seconds in many cases) reduces energy consumption. Since the early 1980s, many laboratories around the world have looked into the effects that lowpressure plasma treatments on different textile materials showing very promising results [1][2][3].…”

Plasma Induced Hydrophilic Cellulose Wound Dressing

“…The properties of plasma treated materials depend on the processing parameters and are measured using surface sensitive techniques. Numerous authors worldwide addressed modification of cellulose and other suitable materials by gaseous plasma treatment [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”