Effect of Low-temperature Plasma Pre-treatment on the Chemical Silver-plated Polyester Fabrics

Low-temperature plasma (LTP) has been increasingly employed for polymer surface modifications. In this paper, plasma gases of oxygen and argon were used for pre-treating polyester fabrics before conducting chemical silver plating, aiming to increase the amount of metal content and improve the performance of the polyester fabrics. After LTP pre-treatment, there was a thin plasma layer generation on the fabric surface which was in good contact with the fibre. Based on the observation of micro-structure using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), it was found that there was an increase in the amount of silver particles deposited on the fibre surface after the LTP pre-treatment. The surface observation implies that the LTP pre-treatment could enhance the hydrophilicity of fibre surface and help facilitate the absorption of silver particle layer to reach the necessary level of uniformity and adhesive strength.