Laser scanning confocal microscope characterization of dye diffusion in nylon 6 fibers treated with atmospheric pressure plasmas

Abstract

The effect of atmospheric pressure plasma treatment on wettability and dyeability of nylon 6 fibers is investigated. The plasma treatments resulted in an average of 108-208 decrease in the advancing contact angle and 208-308 decrease in the receding contact angle. An increased dye diffusion rate of nylon 6 fibers was observed using laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM). Scanning electron microscope confirmed that the fiber surfaces were roughened, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed that the polar groups on the fiber surfaces increased after the plasma treatments. As the plasma treatment time increased, a greater degree of etching was achieved and more polar groups such as hydroxyl and carboxyl groups produced on the surfaces of the nylon 6 fibers, leading to a better wettability and thus a better dyeability of the fiber. This study proved that LSCM may be effectively used in detecting the change of dye diffusion rate in nylon fibers treated with plasmas and the mounting medium should have a close refractive index as the fiber to avoid distortion of the fiber cross section image.

Effect of Particle Size on Silver Nanoparticle Deposition onto Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) Plasma Functionalized Polyamide Fabric

“…On the contrary the plasma‐treated pristine control showed the lowest value of static contact angle. This is due to the non‐permanent effect (aging) of the free radical and polar groups generation on the surface of plasma processed PA 69. Increase in contact angle is usually observed after few days after plasma treatment 15.…”

A review of low-temperature plasma treatment of textile materials

“…Wang et al [144] investigated the effect of atmosphericpressure plasma treatment on basic dyeability of nylon 6 fibers. They observed an increase in dye diffusion rate of plasma-treated fibers, using laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM).…”

Visualization of Sorption Dynamics: Application of Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope Technique

“…The lack of non-destructive observational methodology, thus, led us to apply the use of a confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) for real-time monitoring of penetrants in polymers. CLSM has been widely used for observation and/or analysis of mass transfer phenomena in the field of physiology and pharmacology with fluorescent labeling technique or fluorescent reagent mixture [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] . In physiology, there has been reports on CLSM usage by researchers for monitoring the formation process of poly(ethylene glycol) micro-and nano-gels 17 or surface cross-linked structure of poly(vinyl alcohol) 18 .…”

“…Recently, the material engineering field has recorded reports on attempts to apply CLSM. For example, there was an observation by CLSM 22 on the absorption behavior of glycerin containing fluorescent dye into the fiber as an analytical method for evaluating the hydrophilicity of the surface of nylon fiber. In addition, to investigate the plasticizing effect of supercritical fluid treatment for polypropylene, the distribution of a fluorescent probe mixed in the film has been analyzed by CLSM 23 .…”