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This paper aims at studying the oxygen plasma treatment and the previously prepared and fully characterized chitosan nanoparticles (CNPs) as a green and eco-friendly strategy for surface modification of viscose fabric. This was done to render viscose fabric dye able with two types of acid dyes that do not have direct affinity to fix on it via improving the fabric wettability.

To achieve the goal, viscose fabric was activated with oxygen plasma at optimum conditions and coated with different concentrations of CNPs solution via conventional pad dry cure technique. The untreated and plasma-treated fabrics with CNPs were dyed with two types of acid dyes, namely, Acid Orange 7 and Methyl Red under determined conditions. The color strength (K/S), fastness properties to light, rubbing and perspiration, add on %, tensile strength, wettability and durability of the dyed samples were determined and compared.

The results divulged that oxygen plasma-treated fabric with CNPs and the aforementioned dyes in question could improve the flowing properties in comparison with untreated fabric: (a) the fabric wettability expressed as wetting area mm²; (b) the dye ability and fastness properties of viscose fabrics expressed as K/S and fastness properties; and (c) the strength properties and add on % of the treated fabric. On the other hand, the durability of the plasma-treated fabric decreased with increasing washing cycles.

The novelty addressed here was using plasma treatment as an eco-friendly pre-treatment approach for attachment of CNPs as a multifunctional green bio-nano polymer onto viscose fabric, which improved the dyeing properties of the fabric with acid dyes that do not have direct affinity to fix onto it.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate plasma treatment for Tencel microfibre fabrics for possible improvement in various functional properties.

The plasma treated and untreated fabrics were dyed using reactive dyes and evaluated for comfort properties such as wicking, water vapour permeability and air permeability.

The various comfort properties of plasma treated and an untreated Tencel microfibre fabric have been studied. The wicking results showed a significant reduction in wicking time for plasma treated fabrics compared to untreated fabrics. The test results for water vapour permeability show no significant difference between plasma treated and untreated fabrics. The plasma treated samples show higher air permeability than untreated samples. In the wetting test, it is clearly seen that the plasma treated samples absorbed the water at a faster rate.

This research investigates plasma treatment for Tencel microfibre fabrics for possible improvement in various functional properties.

In this study, the polyester fabrics were treated with low temperature plasma before Cu sputtering. The effect of oxygen gas plasma pre-treatment on the surface structures, electrical properties, and mechanical properties of samples was investigated. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A laboratory direct current (DC) magnetron sputter coating system was used to deposit the nanoscale copper (Cu) films onto the surface of polyester plain fabric at room temperature.

The crystal structure of the sputtered copper films did not show any obvious change on the O₂-plasma-treated fabric, but the surface roughness and surface particle size increased significantly. Improvement in electrical properties of copper films was closely related to the deposition time. The tensile test results indicated that the mechanical properties of the plasma-treated polyester fabrics were also improved after copper coating.

The research reports on the functional textiles, and the experiment results and analysis are original. There is a great potential to commercialize such functional textiles.

This study aims to enhance the dyeability of polyester fabrics with turmeric natural dyes through plasma and alkaline treatments. The aim is to achieve better color strength in dyed samples without significant changes in their other properties. This is done while the weight loss is kept in a range with no considerable effect on those properties.

The surface of a poly(ethylene terephthalate) fabric was modified using oxygen plasma at a low temperature. The alkaline hydrolysis of that polyester fabric was also done through treating it with an aqueous sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution. The untreated and treated polyester fabrics were studied for the changes of their physical characteristics such as weight loss, wetting behavior, strength loss, bending length, flexural rigidity and K/S and wash fastness. The samples were treated with plasma and sodium hydroxide and dyed with a turmeric natural dye.

In comparison to the untreated sample, the plasma-treated, alkaline-treated and plasma treatment followed by alkaline hydrolysis polyester experienced 9.3%, 68.6% and 102.3% increase in its color depth as it was dyed with a turmeric natural dye, respectively. The plasma treatment was followed by alkaline hydrolysis. The improvement in the color depth could be attributed to the surface modification.

In this paper, investigations were conducted of the separate effects of plasma treatment and alkaline hydrolysis as well as their synergistic effect on the dyeing of the polyester fabric with a natural dye obtained from turmeric.

The purpose of this study is to check the effectivity of plasma in the natural dyeing of polyester fabric using four natural dyes – Turkey red, Lac, Turmeric and Catechu using plasma and alum mordant. The surface modification on the polyester fabric by plasma along with the use of benign mordant alum is studied. The enhancement of dyeability in polyester fabric with natural dyes is the main focus. Due to surface modification, the wettability increases, which leads to better dye uptake. Better dye uptake and better dye adherence are the main objectives.

Plasma-mediated natural dyeing is the main design of this research work. The effect of plasma treatment on surface modification of synthetic fabric polyester and its subsequent effects on their dyeing with different natural dyes, namely, Turkey red, Lac, Turmeric and Catechu are studied. The dyeability was further enhanced by the use of alum as mordant. The main focus is on the betterment of natural dyeing of polyester fabric using sustainable natural dyes resources for dyeing and to reduce wastewater contamination from the usage of toxic additive chemicals for cleaner production.

Plasma-mediated and alum-mordanted dyeing method facilitated very good dyeability of all the four natural dyes, namely, Turkey red, Lac, Turmeric and Catechu. Color strength (K/S) values and fastness properties of plasma-treated samples were far better than untreated samples. The synergistic effect of plasma and alum mordanting has made natural dyeing of polyester very easy with very good fastness results. Natural dyeing of polyester after 2 min of plasma treatment showed excellent and desirable results. The process is also easy to be adapted by industries.

As polyester is hydrophobic, natural dyeing of polyester fabric is not very easy, but with plasma-mediated natural dyeing, it becomes a very facile dyeing method; thus, there are no limitations. Use of plasma has reduced the need for any chemical additives which are usually added during the dyeing process.

This process of natural dyeing of polyester fabric can be scaled up to industrial dyeing with natural dyes. Plasma pretreatment of the fabric followed by premordanting with alum has facilitated the natural dyeing well.

Use of plasma in place of chemical modifiers can be a green and environmentally friendly approach for sustainable coloration of polyester fabric, providing a clean wet processing for textiles dyeing.

The synergistic effect of plasma-mediated and alum-mordanted natural dyeing of polyester has not been attempted by any researcher. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is for the first time that pretreatment with atmospheric plasma followed by alum mordanting of polyester fabric has shown very good dye uptake and fastness properties as the dye molecules could penetrate well after 2 min of the plasma treatment.

Low-temperature plasma (LTP) has been increasingly employed for polymer surface modifications. In this paper, plasma gases of oxygen and argon were used for pre-treating polyester fabrics before conducting chemical silver plating, aiming to increase the amount of metal content and improve the performance of the polyester fabrics. After LTP pre-treatment, there was a thin plasma layer generation on the fabric surface which was in good contact with the fibre. Based on the observation of micro-structure using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), it was found that there was an increase in the amount of silver particles deposited on the fibre surface after the LTP pre-treatment. The surface observation implies that the LTP pre-treatment could enhance the hydrophilicity of fibre surface and help facilitate the absorption of silver particle layer to reach the necessary level of uniformity and adhesive strength.

The surface properties of materials are often the important determinants of their usefulness, and many of the chemical treatments now in use are aimed at modifying these properties. The important properties of polymer materials such as adhesion, friction, wetting, penetrability and biological compatibility are strongly influenced by their surface characteristics. Low Temperature Plasma (LTP) is a technology which can produce not only interesting morphological modification on the surface of the polymers, but also can replace less environmental-friendly finishing processes. In this paper, four non-polymerizing plasma gases: oxygen, argon, tetrafluoromethane and 75%/25% nitrogen/hydrogen mixture were used to modify Nylon 6 filaments and fabrics. The results of SEM study reveals that interesting morphological changes on the surface of treated samples. Besides, with the appropriate LTP treatment, the fabric properties, such as the hydrophobicity of polyamides, surface luster, etc. can be greatly modified.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the efficiencies of argon (Ar), oxygen (O₂) and O₂ followed by Ar (O₂→Ar) plasma treatments in terms of contaminant removal and wire bond interfacial adhesion improvement. The aim of this study is to resolve the “lifted ball bond” issue, which is one of the critical reliability checkpoints for light emitting diodes (LEDs) in automotive applications.

Ar, O₂ and O₂→Ar plasma treatments were applied to LED chip bond pad prior to wire bonding process with different treatment durations. Various surface characterization methods and contact angle measurement were then used to characterize the surface properties of these chip bond pads. To validate the improvements of Ar, O₂ and O₂→Ar plasma treatments to the wire bond interfacial adhesion, the chip bond pads were wire bonded and examined with a ball shear test. Moreover, the contact resistance of the wire bond interfaces was also measured by using four-point probe electrical measurements to complement the interfacial adhesion validation.

Surface characterization results show that O₂→Ar plasma treatment was able to remove the contaminant while maintaining relatively low oxygen impurity content on the bond pad surface after the treatment and was more effective as compared with the O₂ and Ar plasma treatments. However, O₂→Ar plasma treatment also simultaneously reduced high-polarity bonds on the chip bond pad, leading to a lower surface free energy than that with the O₂ plasma treatment. Ball shear test and contact resistance results showed that wire bond interfacial adhesion improvement after the O₂→Ar plasma treatment is lower than that with the O₂ plasma treatment, although it has the highest efficiency in surface contaminant removal.

To resolve “lifted ball bond” issue, optimization of plasma gas composition ratios and parameters for respective Ar and O₂ plasma treatments has been widely reported in many literatures; however, the O₂→Ar plasma treatment is still rarely focused. Moreover, the observation that wire bond interfacial adhesion improvement after O₂→Ar plasma treatment is lower than that with the O₂ plasma treatment although it has the highest efficiency in surface contaminant removal also has not been reported on similar studies elsewhere.

This paper aims to evaluate the effect of plasma treatment on the performance and color strength of pigment printed polypropylene nonwovens fabrics.

Melt spun nonwoven fabrics have been treated with plasma discharge using oxygen as a reactive gas to activate their surfaces for better interfacial interactions. The untreated and plasma treated fabrics are printed using pigment print pastes to investigate the print properties of nonwoven fabrics that are correlated to surface characteristics. The printed fabrics are characterized through FTIR, color fastness to washing and rubbing, flexural rigidity and moisture management observations.

The fabrics treated with oxygen plasma exhibited higher wettability, higher overall moisture management capability, enhanced color strength and superior color fastness to washing. However, bending length and flexural rigidity have been increased.

This study offers promising findings regarding the surface activation of polypropylene nonwovens for enhanced performance, comfort and color fastness characteristics.

Previous studies showed that the feltability and wettability of wool fabrics were improved after the application of plasma treatment. In the present paper, further study on the plasma treatment was carried out to investigate its effect on other fabric properties including (i) performance properties (tearing strength, tensile strength and elongation), (ii) aesthetic properties (pilling resistance and crease recovery) and (iii) comfort properties (air permeability, wettability and antistatic).

Pure wool 2/1 twill fabrics were treated by plasma using three non-polymerising gases namely oxygen, nitrogen and 25% hydrogen / 75% nitrogen gas mixture. The operation conditions, i.e. power, pressure and treatment duration, were the same for all plasma treatments. Different tests were conducted to investigate the effect of plasma treatment on the properties of treated fabrics.

The results of experiments showed that plasma treatment did give different degrees of influence on the properties of wool fabric. In addition, the effectiveness of different gases plasma treatment was compared of which the gas mixture plasma gave the best modification effect.