Acrylic Fibers Treated By Glow-Discharge Plasma And The Anti-Static Ability

Plasma treatment only modifies the thin layer of the surface of the materials, and its main properties will be unchanged. Plasma treatment is a physical process which can be done at speeds and the consumption of water, chemicals and energy is very low. At the same time, less pollution will be released during the process. So the plasma technology is an environmentally friendly treatment for the textile industries.The acrylic fibers are treated by oxygen and nitrogen glow-discharge plasma. The change of the surface and the anti-static ability of the treated fibers are researched under different treating time, discharge power and cabinet pressure conditions.The surface chemical composition of the acrylic fibers was analyzed by XPS. The XPS spectrums show an increase in the oxygen content and a decrease in the carbon and nitrogen content. These results suggest that some groups, such as -CONH₂ and -COOH were introduced into the surface of fibers. SEM photos of different conditions revealed the damage in the surface of the treated fibers. The BET results demonstrate that plasma etching causes a significant increase in the surface area. The oxygen plasma brings stronger etching effect than thenitrogen plasma.The wettability and anti-static ability of the acrylic fibers are significantly improved by plasma treatment. The increasing time result an increase of the Moisture regains, and it has a maximum at the time of three minutes and the pressure of 25Pa. With increasing treatment time or pressure, Moisture regains is decreased slightly.The plasma treating improved the dyeability of the acrylic fibers dyed with acid dyes because of the amide groups. In this paper, two acid dyes, ERIONYL Blue A-R and TECTILON Yellow 4R, are used. The uptake and K/S value are analyzed to investigate the properties of the treated surfaces. The result shows that the two acid dyes with different structures can present the variety of the -CONH₂ and -COOH groups on the surface of fibers.