Plasma treatment of thermoactive membrane textiles for superhydrophobicity

Abstract

Expedition clothes have to fulfill high requirements, especially in terms of resistance, thermal comfort and moisture transport. Thermoactive membrane textile materials are commonly used to satisfy all these needs. To improve visual properties of these textiles, a modification to achieve self-clean superhydrophobic surface (known as Lotus Effect) can be used. As an implementation of this idea, glow discharge RF capacitively coupled plasma processing of industry materials with inert as well as polymerizing gases was performed. The self-clean properties were checked empirically with dust and solid particles with good results. To compare different treatment conditions, water contact angle (CA) was measured. In most cases significant increase of the CA in relation to raw materials was observed, with the best values achieving 155°. Surface analyses by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and SEM-EDX spectroscopy were performed. A thin deposited layer with characteristic globular structure was found at the fiber surface treated by organosilicon plasma.