Influence of cold air plasma treatment on thermobonded PET nonwoven textile

Plasma surface treatments show distinct advantages, because they are able to modify the surface properties of inert materials, sometimes with environment friendly devices. On textile surfaces, three main effects can be obtained depending on the treatment conditions: the cleaning effect, the increase of microroughness and the production of radicals to obtain hydrophilic surfaces. The advantage of such plasma treatments is that the modification turns out to be restricted in the uppermost layers of the substrate, thus not affecting the overall desirable bulk properties. The aim of this paper is to change surface properties of the light nonwoven materials from polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) fibers, by treatment in cold atmospheric technological plasma at industrial frequency. A diode parallel-plate type electrode system, consisting in a high voltage plate electrode and grounded plate electrode, is employed. The surface of nonwoven PET material were modified and cleaned by a combined plasma-chemical process. Mass change and air permeability measurements are carried out to study the evolution of hydrophobic change at different working plasma treatment regimes. The main results show a good correlation between the cold plasma treatment and volume mechanical properties.