Plasma Modification of Wool: The Effect of Plasma Gas on the Properties of the Wool Fabric

The wool fabrics were treated with low temperature plasma (LTP) using three different gases, namely (ⅰ) oxygen, (ⅱ) nitrogen and (ⅲ) 25％ hydrogen/75％ nitrogen gas mixture. After LTP treatment, the low stress mechanical properties, surface properties and thermal properties of the fabrics were investigated by kES-F (Kawabata Evaluation System) Instruments composing of KES-FBI for tensile and shear property measurement, KES-FB2 for pure bending measurement, kES-FB3 for compression measurement, KES-FB4 for surface friction and surface roughness measurement, and KES-F7 for thermal property measurement. The first four instruments were used for investigating the charaeterlstlc aspect related to fabrle hand while the last one was mainly for the fabric comfort. The properties of LTP treated fabrics under the effect of different gases were compared with the untreated fabric quantitatively.