Graft Polymerisation of Functional Acrylic Monomers onto Cotton Fibres Activated by Continuous Ar Plasma

Abstract

Summary: Continuous cold Ar plasmas were used to activate the mercerised cotton fabric towards surface‐initiated graft polymerisation of glycidyl methacrylate, 2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and 1,1,2,2‐tetrahydroperfluorodecyl methacrylate (XFDMA). Single and multi‐step processes, carried out either in the plasma chamber (one‐step and two‐step processes) or ex situ after plasma treatment, were explored to optimise the grafting efficiency. The mechanical properties of the grafted cotton were substantially unaffected. Grafting with XFDMA gave good results only when the plasma activation was performed on monomer‐impregnated fabrics, as shown by gravimetry, ATR FT‐IR spectroscopy, and water and oil repellence tests. On the contrary, with HEMA better results were obtained by in situ grafting from monomer vapours.Mercerized cotton fabric before (left) and after (right) graft polymerisation of the fluorinated methacrylate XFDMA from the plasma‐activated surface.magnified imageMercerized cotton fabric before (left) and after (right) graft polymerisation of the fluorinated methacrylate XFDMA from the plasma‐activated surface.

Chemical Vapor Deposition of Conformal, Functional, and Responsive Polymer Films

“…This activation generates free‐radical species on the substrate that can initiate polymerization when contacted with gas‐phase polymer precursors. This technique has been used to initiate vapor‐phase graft polymerization of HEMA on cotton fibers236 and vinyl pyridine vapors on poly(imide) substrates 237. Precise control over the plasma parameters is essential to prevent substrate etching from becoming the dominant process in the modification of the material surface 234.…”

Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy for Natural Fibres

“…IR spectra of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin of natural fibres [60] FTIR has been commonly used to characterize natural fibres with various treatments, e.g. grafting [67][68], coupling [69][70][71], mercerization [72][73][74]. With the aid of FTIR, researchers are able to obtain much more in-depth information of natural fibres after various modifications.…”

Solid state mechano‐chemical grafting copolymerization of hydroxyethyl cellulose with acrylic acid

“…However, the poor solubility of cellulose in common solvents limits its applications to only a few areas; thus, chemical modification is necessary to prepare cellulose derivatives by the introduction of polar and/or functional moieties onto the cellulose backbone. 2 Hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC), one important cellulose derivative, is used extensively in the pharmaceutical industry, 3 painting, 4 and emulsion polymerizations. 5 Because of its wonderful water-solution properties and its chemical composition, with a large amount of relatively easily accessible hydroxyl units that can be attached by a number of functional groups, 6 more and more studies have focused on the modification of HEC.…”