Atmospheric pressure glow discharge of helium-oxygen plasma treatment on polyester/cotton blended fabric

Polyester/cotton blended woven fabric has been treated with atmospheric pressure glow discharge plasma to improve its hydrophilic properties. Discharge has been generated at radio frequency using pure helium and helium-oxygen gas mixtures. The role of various plasma process parameters, such as discharge intensity, exposure time, gas flow rate, interelectrode distance and type of gas, on the hydrophilic and surface properties of the fabric has also been studied. The efficiency of the plasma treatment is assessed through capillary rise measurements, whereas surface characterization is performed with FTIR and SEM. It is observed that plasma process parameters play a key role in deciding properties of the plasma-treated fabric. Use of even low amount of oxygen as a reactive gas has been proved to be very effective in producing hydrophilic properties of plasma-treated polyester/cotton blended fabric.