Synergistic Effect of Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Pre-Treatment on Alkaline Etching of Polyethylene Terephthalate Fabrics and Films

Dyeing of PET materials by traditional methods presents several problems. Plasma technology has received enormous attention as a solution for the environmental problems related with textile surface modifications, and there has been a rapid development and commercialization of plasma technology over the past decade. In this work, the synergistic effect of atmospheric pressure plasma on alkaline etching and deep coloring of dyeing properties on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabrics and films was investigated. The topographical changes of the PET surface were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) images, which revealed a smooth surface morphology of the untreated sample whereas a high surface roughness for the plasma and/or alkaline treated samples. The effects of atmospheric pressure plasma on alkaline etching of the structure and properties of PET were investigated by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), the main objective of performing DSC was to investigate the effect of the plasma pre-treatment on the Tg and Tm. Using a tensile strength tester YG065H and following a standard procedure the maximum force and elongation at maximum force of PET materials was investigated. Oxygen and argon plasma pre-treatment was found to increase the PET fabric weight loss rate. The color strength of PET fabrics was increased by various plasma pre-treatment times. The penetration of plasma and alkaline reactive species deep into the PET structure results in better dyeability and leaves a significant effect on the K/S values of the plasma pre-treated PET. It indicated that plasma pre-treatment has a great synergistic effect with the alkaline treatment of PET.