Plasma Induced Physicochemical Changes and Reactive Dyeing of Wool Fabrics

Abstract

This study focuses on the effect of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma treatment on physical and chemical properties of wool fabric and its relation to exhaustion of Drimalan Navy Blue FBI reactive dye. AFM analysis of plasma treated wool fabric has shown partial removal of epicuticle and thus reduced scale height. FD spectroscopy has shown improvement in hydrophilicity by many folds after plasma treatment. ATR graphs depict the removal of hydrophobic layer of 18-MEA and introduction of hydrophilic groups like cysteic acid after plasma treatment. Alkali solubility of wool fabric increases with increasing plasma treatment time. Wetting time for plasma treated fabric reduces drastically when compared to untreated wool fabric. It is found that plasma treated fabric takes much lesser time to reach maximum dye exhaustion than untreated fabric. Substantivity of the dye increases significantly after plasma treatment. Colour fastness properties improve with increase in plasma treatment time. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) of spent dyebath liquor is found to reduce with increase in plasma treatment time. Biological oxygen demand (BOD) is found to be higher for plasma treated samples, while ratio of COD/BOD has reduced with increase in the plasma treatment time.