Improving hydrophobicity on polyurethane-based synthetic leather through plasma polymerization for easy care effect

Abstract

This study reports on the deposition of a hydrophobic coating on polyurethane (PU)-based synthetic leather through a plasma polymerization method and investigates the hydrophobic behavior of the plasma-coated substrate. The silicon compound of hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO), inactive gas argon (Ar), and toluene were used to impart surface hydrophobicity to a PU-based substrate. Surface hydrophobicity was analyzed by water contact angle measurements. Surface hydrophobicity was increased by deposition of compositions of 100% HMDSO, 3:1 HMDSO/toluene, and 1:1 HMDSO/toluene. Optimum conditions of 40 W, 30 s plasma treatment resulted in essentially the same initial contact angle results of approximately 100 for all three treatment compositions. The initial water contact angle for untreated material was about 73. A water droplet took 1800 s to spread out on the plasma-treated sample after it had been placed on the sample surface. An increase in plasma power also led to a decrease in contact angle, which may be attributed to oxidization of HMDSO during plasma deposition. XPS analysis showed that plasma polymerization of HMDSO/toluene compositions led to a significant increase in atomic percentage of Si compound responsible for the hydrophobic surface. The easy clean results for the treated and untreated PU-based synthetic leather samples clearly showed that the remaining stain on the plasma-polymerized sample was less than that of untreated sample. The plasma-formed coating was both hydrophobic and formed a physical barrier against water and stain. © 2013 American Coatings Association & Oil and Colour Chemists' Association

Preparation of breathable and superhydrophobic polyurethane electrospun webs with silica nanoparticles

“…2 Due to these characteristics, PU is widely used in textile materials for coating, artificial leather, and garment fabrics, despite of some drawbacks such as poor hydrophobicity that still exist. 3,4 Considering these desirable properties for textile materials, a number of studies have been conducted to utilize PU as a breathable coating in many forms, such as the electrospun web [5][6][7] or film. 8 Chung et al 5 developed a shape memory PU electrospun web for intelligent coating, which can control its transport properties as temperature changes.…”

Development of novel biocomposites based on the clean production of microbial cellulose from dairy waste (sour whey)

“…All four samples containing KBC and sisal fiber treated with DCDMS (S2, S3, S4, and S5) possessed water resistance property all showing contact angles greater than 70°. This can be attributed to the grafting of silane on KBC and sisal fiber as a coating to avoid the adsorption of water since the modified micro‐particles helped to improve the hydrophobic properties of the samples 56–59 . In contrast, the hydrophilic nature of pristine KBC and alkali treatment process increased the interaction of free hydroxyl groups via hydrogen bondings between the bio‐fillers and water molecules leading to an increase in the surface wettability of sample S1 60 …”

The effects of surface modification using O2 low temperature plasma on chrome tanning properties of natural leather

“…When the plasma treatment time was 30 min, the leather surface was etched rougher and some filamentous fibers appeared on the grain surface and inside the pores (Figure 3(c1) and (c2)). These changes are due to the etching effect of plasma on the surface and the melting effects on the pore borders, which have already been discussed in the former researches [21][22][23][24][25][26]. The longer the leather gets processed, the rougher the surface is etched.…”

“…[21], which could not only improve leather surface energy, but also enhance its cross-linking ability with inorganic metal tanning agents. Previous studies of applying LTP treatment to leather surface and other textile modification mainly focused on the surface microstructure [22], wettability [23], hydrophobicity [24,25], hydrophilicity [26,27], dyeing [28][29][30] and mechanical properties [31], but researches on the effect of the active groups change on chrome tanning performance have seldom been reported yet.…”