The Influence of Surface DBD Plasma Treatment on the Adhesion of Coatings to High-Tech Textiles

Abstract

The surface of high-performance poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fibers is difficult to wet and impossible to chemically bond to different matrices. Sizing applied on the fiber surface usually improves fiber wetting, but prevents good adhesion between a matrix and the fiber surface.The present study demonstrates that the plasma treatment performed by Surface dielectric barrier discharge (Surface DBD) can lead to improved adhesion between sized PET fabric and polyurethane (PU) or poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) coatings. Moreover, it points out that this plasma treatment can outperform current state-of-the-art adhesion-promoting treatment.Plasma treatment of sized fabric was carried out in various gaseous atmospheres, namely N 2 , N 2 + H 2 O, N 2 + AAc (acrylic acid) and CO 2 . The adhesion was assessed by a peel test, while wettability was evaluated using strike-through time and wicking rate tests. Changes in fiber surface morphology and chemical composition were determined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. Only the CO 2 plasma treatment resulted in improved adhesion. As indicated by the analyses, increased surface roughness and the incorporation of specific oxygen-containing groups were responsible for enhanced adhesion.The results presented were obtained using a plasma reactor suitable only for batch-wise treatment. As continuous treatment is expected to provide higher homogeneity and, therefore, even better adhesion, a scaled-up Surface DBD plasma system allowing continuous treatment is presented as well.

Plasma technology in fashion and textiles

“…Plasma technology is broadly used to improve surface wettability and/or hydrophilicity of numerous textile materials (Demir et al, 2011;Ren et al, 2008). The increase in hydrophilicity of numerous fibrous materials such as polyamide, polyester, polyethylene, polypropylene, silk, aramid, carbon fibers, wool, and cellulose has been Sarmadi et al (1996) demonstrated (Riccardi et al, 2005;Masaeli et al, 2007;Li et al, 2009;Huang et al, 2013;Bessada et al, 2011;Simor et al, 2010;Wang and Qiu, 2007;Vander Wielen et al, 2006). Plasma treatments in air or using different carrier gases are able to introduce hydrophilic functional groups such as eCOOH, eOH, and eNH 2 on the fabric surface.…”

Tailored wettability of plasma polymers made of C–F, C–H, and N–H

“…Although wettability of surfaces has been studied for centuries, new applications have emerged in recent decades with respect to the boundary between physics and biology. It influences many surface‐related processes, such as cell‐culture growth, coating adhesion, and so forth . The preparation of surfaces with controlled wetting, especially on polymer substrates, is still a hot topic .…”

“…It influences many surface-related processes, such as cell-culture growth, coating adhesion, and so forth. [1,2] The preparation of surfaces with controlled wetting, especially on polymer substrates, is still a hot topic. [3] Often tailor-made, polymers can be prepared by a variety of chemical (wet chemistry, sol-gel technique, and vapor depositions) and physical (plasma polymerization in either atmospheric or lower pressures) methods.…”

Optical characteristics of the filamentary and diffuse modes in surface dielectric barrier discharge

“…Surface dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) can generate uniform plasma layers with large areas at atmospheric pressure, so it is attractive for many industrial applications, such as ozone synthesis [1,2], surface treatment [3,4], thin-film deposition [5,6] and aerodynamic flow control [7][8][9]. Generally, surface DBD is produced in a thin layer along a dielectric surface at room temperature and atmospheric air.…”