Surface characterization and properties of functionalized nonwoven

Abstract

Nonwoven materials have been increasingly used in many industries. The surface properties of nonwoven materials are of importance in these applications. In this study, functional nonwoven materials were prepared by sputtering deposition of copper (Cu), zinc oxide (ZnO), and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) on the surface of polypropylene (PP) fibers. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM) were employed to study the surface morphology and chemical compositions. The observations by AFM revealed the formation of functional nanostructures on the fibre surfaces and the ESEM examination confirmed the formation of functional compositions on the fiber surface. The metallic coating of Cu significantly improved the surface conductivity of the material. The transmittance analysis indicated that the ZnO coating obviously increased the ultra-violet absorption of the material. The surface hydrophobicity of the nonwoven material was enhanced by the sputter coating of PTFE.

Functional Nano and Micro-Scale Thin Film Deposition on Textiles: Emerging Technologies and Applications

“…Coatings by PVD offer a number of advantages over conventional textile coating methods [1,4,5,7,19,20,21,22,23,8];…”

“…Sputtering deposition of copper, zinc oxide (ZnO) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) on the surface of meltblown nonwoven having polypropylene (PP) fibers have been studied [5]. While deposition of Cu improved the surface conductivity of the material by reducing the surface resistance significantly, the deposition of ZnO significantly increased the UV absorption of the material displaying the UV shielding effect.…”

“…Several techniques have been proposed for the application of nano films and coatings on the textile surfaces to impart special functionalities, such as ionized gas treatments, plasma treatment, sol-gel, polymer dispersions, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), electroless deposition, electroplating, surface grafting, enzyme modification and atomic layer deposition (ALD). Nano-scaled coatings can be used to coat individual monofilaments with films that are as thin as 10nm in thickness, with improved functionality and durability [2,3,4,5,6,7,8].…”

Plasma Surface Treatments of Nonwovens

“…Coatings on polymeric materials by PVD methods have been found to improve the surface properties without altering the bulk properties [15,16,17,18]. PVD techniques offer advantages over conventional textile coating [10,12,16,19,20,21], since it is an environmentally friendly, solvent-free process without any need to dispose of any liquid waste. Moreover, a strong bonding is achieved between the fibrous substrate and coating layer.…”

“…Thin films of metals and metal oxides have been applied to nonwoven substrates using different thin film deposition techniques such as ionized gas treatments, plasma treatment, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), surface grafting, and layer-by-layer deposition [2,7,8,9,10,11,12,13].…”