Hydrophobization of Cotton Fabrics with Fluorocarbon Plasmas

The objective of this study was to highlight the possibility of treating the cotton fabrics with fluorocarbon plasmas in order to obtain water and soil repellent material. A treatment of cotton fabrics was carried out using the low-pressure RF inductively coupled C6F6 and C6F14 plasmas. The influence of plasma parameters (power, time, flow) on fabric wettability and whiteness were considered. The fiber surface morphology changes were assessed by AFM analysis. The application C6F6 plasma insignificantly affected the wettability of cotton fabric whereas C6F14 plasma treatment led to a considerable increase in fabric hydrophobicity. Both plasmas brought about decrease in whiteness degree of cotton fabrics. http://mail.ipb.ac.rs/~marinkov/text/E4_23SPIG_cp.pdf