fabric and garment finishing

1. Antimicrobial Finishing
Of Polyester Fabric
Using Atmospheric
Pressure Plasma
Technology
Fabric And Garment Finishing
- Article by NV Bhat,Vinay G Nadiger andV D Gotmare

2. Introduction
▪ Antimicrobial finishing of textiles is important in the production of
protective, medical, hygienic textiles, decorative and other technical
textile products.
▪ Antimicrobial finishing protects user from pathogenic or odor
generating microorganisms.

3. Plasma Treatment
▪ Plasma treatments have been used to induce both surface
modifications and bulky property enhancements of textile materials,
resulting in improvements to textile products ranging from
conventional fabrics to advanced composites.
▪ Plasma treatments have been shown to enhance dyeing rates of
polymers, improve color fastness and wash resistance, increase
adhesion of coatings, and modify wettability of fibers and fabrics.
▪ It can be performed either at low pressure or atmospheric pressures.

4. Atmospheric Plasma Treatment
▪ Atmospheric plasma treatment is a useful technique to modify
polymer surfaces and leads to polymerization, grafting, and
crosslinking .
▪ The three types of atmospheric pressure plasmas are:
– corona discharge,
– silent discharge (SD),
– atmospheric pressure glow discharge (APGD).

5. Materials For Plasma Treatment
▪ Ready for dyeing (RFD) polyester filament yarn fabric,
▪ LaboratoryGrade NaOH,
▪ Glycidyl Meth-Acrylate(GMA),
▪ Glycidyl trimethyl ammonium chloride(GTMAC),
▪ Chitosan.

6. Method
1. MILD SCOURING
– The RFD polyester fabric is pre-treated with 0.2% soap and 0.05% soda ash.
2. SURFACE HYDROLYSIS
– Surface hydrolysis of fabric is done using 10% NaOH for 10-30 min under temp
of 3o˚C - 80˚C followed by hot and cold washing.
3. HTCC PREPARATION
– To improve antimicrobial activity, chitosan is modified with GTMAC.
– The reaction is performed in a solution if 27% GTMAC and 8% chitosan in 65%
deionized water.

7. 4. PLASMATREATMENT
– The polyester fabric is passed
between top and bottom layer
of electrodes, where it is
exposed to plasma generated
from mixture of helium and
oxygen gas.
– The speed of machine is
adjusted to give dwell time of
60-120 sec.

8. 5. GMA GRAFTING
– The fabric is immediately graft copolymerized with GMA after each plasma
treatment ,
– Fabric is treated with the 50% aqueous methanol solution of 20% GMA with M:L
ratio of 1:30,
– Fabric is then thoroughly washed with warm distilled water, ethanol and
acetone and dried at 50˚C.
6. HTCCTREATMENT ON GRAFTED FABRIC
– 5 % solution of HTCC powder is prepared using deionized water,
– GMA grafted fabric is treated in this solution at 80-85˚C for 60 min with M:L
ration of 1:25,
– The finished fabric washed with hot water followed by cold water wash and
dried under shade.

9. 7. ATR – FTIR SPECTROSCOPIC STUDY
– The ATR-FTIR spectra is recorded at the resolution of 4 per cubic meter using
Perkin-Elmer spectrometer model system 2000.
8. SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC (SEM) INVESTIGATION
– The SEM photomicrographs are recorded using a JOEL, SEM model JEM 5400
and used to study changes in surface morphology of the fabric.
9. EVALUATION OFTENSILE PROPERTY
– The tensile testing is carried out usingTensileTester model as per ASTM D5035-
06(2008).

10. Conclusion
▪ Atmospheric pressure plasma treatment is one of the appropriate
technologies for surface finishing of fabrics.
▪ Bulk properties do not change due to the treatment.
▪ Tensile properties did not change significantly due to the treatment.