An Application Of Semi-APGD To Textile Materials

The plasma treatment is an environment-friendly technology. In textile field plasma technology can greatly reduce the consumption of water, steam, energy and chemicals, therefore, pollution burden on environment is greatly lessened. Along with development manufacturing technology, plasma machine now is stepping in to industrialized stage.This paper researched the plasma generation and application of corona discharge and dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) firstly, and briefly introduced the technical status of atmospheric pressure glow discharge (APGD). It is found that APGD is most suitable method for textile treatment. The common models to explain APGD are electron avalanche model and streamer discharge model. APGD and DBD can be distinguished by voltage-current waveform and voltage-charge Lissajous figure. Results show that plasma generation of self-made pulse machine is semi-APGD, and discharge power is 60W and power density is 0.16W/cm².The wool fabric was treated by air plasma in the trials. The shrink area was measured to evaluate the shrink-resist property of wool fabric. The fabric shrinkage was enormously decreased at short time. A better shrink-resist property was obtained with longer plasma treatment. But the excessive long treatment brought a reverse result. When the power increased, the shrink-resist property descended. SEM photos under different conditions revealed the damage of structure of wool fabrics. The increase of time brought stronger damage. An individual plasma treatment cannot impart full machine washabilty. And plasma may bring a harsh handle to the wool fabric. In order to generate full machine washsbility and good handle, an additional protease treated wool was selected.The shrink-resist property, handle, breaking strength, weight loss and chromatic aberration of treated wool were researched under different plasma treating time, enzyme, oxidant and reducing reagent conditions. After single factor and orthogonal experiment, the optimum condition was obtained as follows: plasma treating 4 min, then treated with NaHSO₃, finally finished by acid X protease. The hydrophobic epicutical layer of wool fiber was damaged by plasma and NaHSO₃ treatment and the S-S bond breakage brought lots of - SO₃ groups in exocuticle layer. These change not only made the surface hydrophilic, but also improve the water absorbency of inner layer. So protease can sufficient and even act on fabric. The shrink-resist property obtain with this method impart full machine washabilty. And the treatment bring a good handle conform with chlorination treating. It can be summarized that plasma treatment can fully take the place of chlorine process.Atmospheric plasma technology was applied to desizing and scouring cotton fabric via degradating, eroding and oxidizing the size, grease, wax were oxidized and degradated to smaller ones which were easier swelled and dissolved. At the same time, Polar groups such as - OH, - COOR, -C=O or - NH₂ were introduced into the fiber which increased fabric wettability and chemical penetrability. Plasma action led some another big molecules oxidize into some molecules such as CO₂, HO₂ which directly disappeared in the air. It was show from the experimental results that the wicking effect was increased and percent desizing ratio was improved significantly. The more the treat time was, the greater effect was enhanced, and the increasing tendency would be weak while they were treated over 4 min. It was also observed that fewer chemical were needed after plasma treatment.