Effect of low temperature plasma pretreatment on the wettability and dryability of polyester and nylon fibres

Wettability is not only an important property for industrial textile processing such as dyeing and finishing, but also performs the comfort role when human body wears garment. Other than wettability, dryability is another important property for comfort. In order to keep the wearer dry and comfort during the vigorous activities, garment should have the property to transport the perspiration from the body and then transport the liquid from innerwear to outerwear. Since low temperature plasma (LTP) treatment would promisingly affects the surface properties of polymeric materials without altering their bulk properties, and the wettability and dryability of textile materials are closely related to their surface properties. The effect of surface treatment with LTP on those properties was studied in this paper. The results revealed that functional groups like carbonyl group, hydroxyl group and carboxyl group were formed after LTP treatment with oxygen leading to hydrophilic surface of nylon and polyester fabric. Apart from formation of polar groups, the plasma etching effect would enhance the capillary flow which was another reason causing improved wettability. On the other hand, the LTP treatment with oxygen did not show any significant improvement in the dryability when compared with the untreated fabrics. Therefore, the plasma-treated fabrics could also obtain a quick dry properties when compared with the untreated fabrics.