Untersuchung der Tiefenwirkung von Normal- und Niederdruck-Plasmabehandlungen zur Hydrophilierung von Vliesstoffen aus Polypropylen und Polyethylenterephthalat

摘要

Physical processes to hydrophilisation of polymer surfaces, such as atmospheric (barrier discharge) and low pressure plasma (glow discharge) treatments, are of increasing interest for the textile industry. This is related to their compatibility with the environment and their innovative potential thus enabling the development of new products by unconventional methods. If depth effective hydrophilisation is targeted, plasma-based processes are not suitable yet, since the depth effect of plasma treatments on textiles is hardly investigated up to know. In case of request for homogeneously treated textile materials, e. g., for application in the filter manufacturing industry or if for instance in the field of sportswear heterogeneously finished textiles are demanded, an insufficiently controlled depth effect might reduce the quality of the products and thereby diminishes the industrial applicability of the process. In this work investigations on the plasma-based hydrophilisation of PP and PET fleece under normal and reduced pressure with special regard to the depth effect will be presented. In order to determine the depth effect, a layer model consisting of 10 layers of the respective textile substrate which simulates a fleece of high coating weight per unit area was developed. The layer model was low pressure plasma treated using oxygen as plasma gas and atmospheric plasma treated using air as plasma gas by simultaneous variation of the treatment parameters. Afterwards each layer of the model was examined by wettability tests to determine the depth efficacy of the treatment. Plasma induced chemical modifications of the fleece layers were determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and topical modifications of the fleece fibres were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, white light interferometry and atomic force microscopy. The results were compared to those achieved for untreated material. Both glow discharge and barrier discharge plasma treatment led to a recognizable hydrophilisation of all fleece layers of the layer model, regardless of the utilised textile substrate of the plasma process.