Fibrous textiles have been increasingly used in a variety of industries. In these applications, the surface properties of textile materials play a very important role. The surface properties of textile materials can be modified by various techniques. Copper (Cu) nanocomposite textiles are prepared by magnetron sputter coating. The nanocomposite textiles with different thickness of coatings are investigated by atomic force microscope (AFM), energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, and opto-electrical tests. The AFM observations reveal the growth of the Cu nanostructures formed on the fiber surface as the sputtering time increases. The surface conductivity of the textiles coated with Cu nanostructures shows a significant increase compared to the uncoated ones. The increased coating thickness leads to better electrical conductivity. The coated textiles also show considerable improvement in UV and visible light shielding, examined by UV/Vis spectrometer.

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) has been increasingly used in many industries due to its low frictional coefficient and excellent chemical inertness. The surface properties of PTFE are of importance in various applications. The surfaceproperties of PTFE can be modifiedby different techniques. In this study, PTFE film was treated in oxygen plasma for improving surface wettability. The effects of plasma treatment on dynamic wetting behavior were characterized using Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and dynamic contact angle (DCA) measurements. SPM observations revealed the etching effect of the plasma treatment on the film. The introduction of hydrophilic groups by plasma treatment was detected by FTIR. The roughened and functionalized surface resulted in the change in both advancing and receding contact angles. Advancing and receding contact angles were significantly reduced, but the contact angle hysteresis was obviously increased after plasma treatment.

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Over the recent few decades, a large number of audiovisual speech studies have been focusing on the visual cues of consonants and vowels but neglecting those relating to lexical tones. In this study, we investigate whether incongruent audiovisual information interfered with the perception of lexical tones. We found that, for both Chinese and English speakers, incongruence between auditory and visemic mouth shape (i.e., visual form information) significantly interfered with reaction time and reduced the identification accuracy of vowels. However, incongruent lip movements (i.e., visual timing information) did not interfere with the perception of auditory lexical tone. We conclude that, in contrast to vowel perception, auditory tone perception seems relatively impervious to visual congruence cues, at least under these restricted laboratory conditions. The salience of visual form and timing information is discussed based on this finding.