Influence of He/O2 atmospheric pressure plasma jet treatment on subsequent wet desizing of polyacrylate on PET fabrics

The influence of He/O2 atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) treatment on subsequent wet desizing of polyacrylate on PET fabrics was studied in the present paper. Weight loss results indicated that the weight loss increased with an increase of plasma treatment time. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed an increased surface roughness after the plasma treatment. SEM also showed that the fiber surfaces were as clean as unsized fibers after 35 s treatment followed by NaHCO3 desizing. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicated that oxygen-based functional groups increased for the plasma treated polyacrylate sized fabrics. The percent desizing ratio (PDR) results showed that more than 99% PDR was achieved after 65 s plasma treatment followed by a 5 min NaHCO3 desizing. Compared to conventional wet desizing, indicating that plasma treatment could significantly reduce desizing time.

► Plasma as a pre-treatment for NaHCO3 desizing of polyacrylate size on PET fabric. ► The change of surface morphology and surface chemical composition of polyacrylate treated by plasma were studied. ► Influence of plasma etching on weight loss of polyacrylate. ► Compare with control sized fabric, plasma pre-treatment can markedly facilitate NaHCO3 desizing efficiency.