Plasma treatment of polyester fabrics to increase the adhesion of reduced graphene oxide

• Reduced graphene oxide (RGO) has been deposited on polyester (PES).
• Polyester (PES) fabrics have been treated with atmospheric plasma technique.
• Plasma produces an increase of hydrophilicity and roughness.
• Bovine serum albumin (BSA) fixed reduced graphene oxide (RGO) on plasma treated PES.
• Plasma and BSA coating enhanced the deposition of RGO on PES fabrics.

Polyester (PES) fabrics were treated with plasma to enhance the adhesion of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and produce conductive fabrics. The surface energy of the plasma treated fabrics was measured using contact angle measurements and showed a stabilization of this parameter with plasma dosages of 3000 W min m−2. The surface roughness measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM) also showed a stabilization with the same plasma dosage value. The plasma treatment induced negative charges on the surface of the fibers and graphene oxide (GO) also presented negative charges – and so deposition of GO on the surface of the PES fibers was not possible. For this reason, bovine serum albumin (BSA) was employed as an intermediate coating that acquired a positive charge and enabled the self-assembly of GO on plasma treated PES fibers. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was employed to measure the resistance of the conductive fabrics. The plasma treatment and BSA coating improved the coating level of the samples and hence the conductivity of the fabrics was improved with the application of fewer RGO layers. RGO adhesion on fabrics was also improved as shown in rubbing fastness tests.

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