Atmospheric pressure plasma-induced decolorisation of cotton knitted fabric dyed with reactive dye

The aim of this study was to investigate the decolorisation effect of atmospheric pressure plasma treatment on knitted fabrics dyed with reactive dyes under different processing parameters, ie, air concentration, treatment duration and water content. The fabrics were dyed with reactive dye of a blue colour, and the colour depths were 0.5%, 1.5% and 3.0% on weight of fabric. The colour properties of untreated and plasma-treated fabric samples were evaluated by means of reflectance, K/S and relative unlevelness index. The colour properties were evaluated instrumentally and quantitatively in order to study the decolorisation effect induced by atmospheric pressure plasma treatment. Experimental results revealed that the desired decolorisation effect was heavily influenced by the atmospheric pressure plasma treatment processing parameters. Although the desired decolorisation effect could be obtained by controlling the processing parameters of the atmospheric pressure plasma treatment, the treatment did not provide any significant reduction in the bursting strength of the fabric.