Cotton fabric scouring by plasma and charaterization by ATR-FTIR

What is it about?

With development in science and technology of plasma, atmospheric pressure plasma recently emerged as attractive means for textile processing. It is confirmed in this study that plasma treatment with air DBD removes non-cellulosic impurities from surface of grey cotton fabric. The results obtained by plasma treatment are comparable with that of alkaline scoured cotton fabric. Thus, the study clearly indicates that the atmospheric pressure plasma has a great potential to process gray cotton.

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Why is it important?

Atmospheric pressure plasmas have been explored recently to improve hydrophilicity of gray cotton fabric, however it was difficult to understand plasma induced changes due to complex surface chemistry of cotton fiber. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy is a surface sensitive technique, and since most of the impurities are located in outermost layers of cotton fibres this technique can measure their presence semi quantitatively. Thus plasma induced removal of impurities can be easily traced with ATR-FTIR.