1Department of Fibres and Textile Processing Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology, Nathalal Parekh Marg, Matunga, Mumbai- 400019, India
2Plasma Nanotech Lab, Chemical and Bio-chemical Processing Division, Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology, Matunga, Mumbai-400019, India
*Corresponding author: M. D. Teli; md.teli@ictmumbai.edu.in
Online published on 2 May, 2015.
Silk fabrics were plasma treated in an indigenously developed atmospheric pressure cold plasma reactor in presence of He-N2 gaseous mixture at a discharge voltage of 5 kV and frequency of 21–23 kHz. After the plasma treatment, silk fabric became more hydrophilic in surface characteristics. As a result of this, wicking and absorbency of water increased profoundly. In the plasma treated sample, water absorbency time significantly decreased to 2 s from 186 s in the untreated sample. Similarly in the plasma treated silk, water took only 408 s to move up to 6 cm height in the vertical direction compared to 696 s in the untreated sample. In the plasma treated sample, dye bath exhaustion and K/S values were 36% and 32% more, respectively compared to those for untreated sample when acid dyeing was carried out for 80 min at 40ºC. It seems that the formation of more amine groups in silk protein after plasma treatment helped in better dyeing properties.
Plasma, Silk, Surface modification, Hydrophilic fibres and Dyeing
