Study of Liquid Wetting on Thermal Bonded Polyester Nonwovens Treated by Atmospheric Plasma

摘要

Liquid wetting on thermal bonded polyester nonwoven fabrics before and after plasma treatment is studied by Wilhelmy plate technique. The nonwovens with two basis weights has the same composition; 85% polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and 15% polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) fibers. It is found that for control fabric with different basis weights, their water contact angles are similar. Compared with the water contact angles of the composed fibers, however, those of the control fabrics are increased a lot Pore structure in nonwoven fabrics plays a dominant role in determining the increase of contact angles. After the atmospheric air plasma treatment, the wettablity of nonwovens is improved obviously. The decrease extent of water contact angles is largely dependent on the plasma processing conditions. Higher working power and lower treatment velocity yield the better treatment results. This is agreement with the classic theory of Bell et al. There is no much difference of the water contact angle between denser and looser fabrics except in the case of the lowest treatment velocity. In addition, water vapor plasma is applied to improve the surface wettability of nonwovens, however, the improvement result is not so desirable as the air plasma treatment.