Modification of wool fibers by atmospheric pressure plasma treatment

Shrink-proofing processing of wool fabrics by vacuum plasma treatment has been studied for many years. However, as a wool shrink-proofing processing method, discharge treatment under atmospheric pressure, such as corona and low-temperature electric plasma treatment, has been studied recently. In this study, an attempt was made to improve shrink-proofing and other properties of a wool fabric by low-temperature plasma treatment. The wool fabric was treated by pulsed atmospheric pressure plasma using a dielectric barrier discharge apparatus of the Institute of Textile Technology at Denkendorf by varying the power and flow rate of air. Shrink-proofing, dyeing yield and water-absorbing properties increased to a greater degree with the increase in the treatment time. However, the effect was saturated at 3 min. On the other hand, hysteresis of shearing property at large shear angle (2HG5), which is one of the mechanical parameters for measuring fabric hand by the Kawabata evaluation system (KES), becomes larger with the treatment time. It can be concluded that shear hysteresis value is related to the improvement in shrink-proofing and other properties of the wool fabric.