Study On The Dyeing Properties Of Tencel Fabrics Treated With Plasma

Tencel fabrics has been used more and more widely in the fashion area for facing the demandsof wearing comfort of customers. However, the fibrillation of Tencel impedes its utility for whiteand frost-like appearance generating in the wearing process, especially for dark fabrics. Therefore,in this project, plasma treatment was used as pretreatment process to improve dyeing ability andcolor fastness of Tencel fabrics.In this project, Tencel fabrics was treated different period with air low-pressure plasmafollowing by dyeing with C.I. Reactive Black5. The storage time after plasma treatment and theconcentration of dyeing solution was controlled. Through observing the surface characteristics byScanning Electronic Microscope (SEM), calculating the value of dye exhaustion and fixation,measuring the Integ value and analyzing the spectrum of Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy(FTIR) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), the conclusion is as follows:（1）Lots of micro craters generated on Tencel fiber, which was caused by the etching effect ofplasma treatment. The longer plasma treatment time was, the more craters were. In addition, theweight loss rate of fabrics increased and whiteness decreased with plasma treatment timeprolonging.（2）In the dry state, when the times of friction were same, the amount of fibrils increased withprolonged plasma treatment time, even the broken fibers on the surface of fabric were squeezed tobe like flake. When plasma treatment time was10min, with the friction times increasing, theimpairment on the fabrics surface was worse: from little fibrils to obvious broken fiber. Wet colorfastness of dyed fabrics was tested. When the concentration of dyeing solution was low, the colorfastness increased with the plasma treatment time prolonging; however, when the concentrationwas high, the color fastness decreased with time prolonging. Although plasma treatment time wasdifferent, the degree of impairment caused by wetting friction was similar.（3）The dye exhaustion and fixation were improved when fabrics treated by plasma. While theconcentration was fixed, the value of dye exhaustion and fixation increased following by decrease.In addition, the value of dye exhaustion and fixation reduced with the concentration increasing, nomatter how long the plasma treatment time was.（4）After plasma treatment and storage different time, Tencel fabrics were dyed with threedifferent concentration. When the treatment time was10min, the value of Integ reached the peak.And when the concentration was low, such as1%o.m.f., the value of Integ changed significantly.The relationship between the value of Integ and weight loss rate of fabrics, which was dyed indifferent concentration after plasma treatment and stored7days, was as follows: when the weightloss rate was4.5%, that was, plasma treatment time was10min, the value of Integ reached thepeak although the concentration was different.（5）Plasma treatment has ageing effect: the value of dye exhaustion and fixation decreasedwith storage time prolonged after plasma treatment. （6）By surface chemical analysis using FTIR and XPS, the conclusion was as follows: plasmatreatment time and concentration of dyeing solution had an important influence on theintermolecular hydrogen bonding O(2)H…O(6) and O-H stretching, but storage time had littleinfluence on them. The ratio of O/C and the amount of functional groups of oxygen increased andthen decreased with plasma treatment time prolonging, and they were also affected by differentconcentration and storage time. The functional groups of nitrogen was gradually changed fromamide to nitrile, when plasma treatment time prolonged; it increased in the type and amount whenconcentration raised; but the amount decreased when storage time increased.