New Possibilities of Raw Cotton Pre-treatment before reactive dyeing

Cotton fiber is one of the most used materials among other natural fibers in the textile and clothing industry. On the other hand, environmental pollutants are formed during the processing of cotton industry especially in conventional wet processes such as bleaching, scouring for raw cotton. In order to make alteration to those processes enzymes can be also used in some of them such as: bleaching and scouring. Due to the fact that conventional textile finishing processes with intensive energy, water and chemical consumption are not environmentally friendly; it is necessary to develop more green and economic production methods. Plasma technology and enzymes are promising techniques to support eco-friendly production in textile industry. These eco-friendly methods can also be combined to produce high quality materials and to reduce production cost. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of plasma treatment combined with enzymatic bioscouring system over raw cotton fabric. Several techniques of characterization were used to study the effects caused by the interaction between plasma discharge/enzymes and cotton fabric, such as: static and dynamic contact angle, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR) and reflectance spectrophotometer. All analyses performed in this study showed that DBD plasma discharge combined with enzymes, when applied on cotton fiber, produces significant modifications on the surface of this substrate, improving hydrophilicity and whiteness without altering its intrinsic properties. Thus, proving the effectiveness of the synergy of two important technologies to textile industry.