Multifunctional Textiles – Modification by Plasma, Dyeing and Nanoparticles

Abstract

The textile industry in developed countries is confronting the world’s marketing conditions and competitive challenges which are driving towards the development of advanced, highly functional textiles and textiles with higher added value. The conventional textile finishing techniques are wet chemical modifications where water and rather hazardous chemicals are used in large quantities and wastewaters need to be processed before discharging effluent, whereas the most problematic factor are ecological impacts to the environment and effects to human health. The increasing environmental concerns and demands for an environmentally friendly processing of textiles leads to the development of new technologies, the use of plas‐ ma being one of the suitable methods [1]. Plasma technology is an environmentally friendly technology and a step towards creating solid surfaces with new and improved properties that cannot be achieved by conventional processes [2]. Plasma is the fourth state of matter. It is a gas with a certain portion of ionized as well as other reactive particles, e.g. ions, elec‐ trons, photons, radicals and metastable excited particles. Several types of plasma are known; however, only non-equilibrium or cold plasma is used for the modification of physical and chemical properties of solid materials such as textiles.