%0 Journal Article
%T Colour Fading of Textile Fabric by Plasma Treatment
%A H. F. Cheung
%A C. W. Kan
%A C. W. M. Yuen
%A J. Yip
%A M. C. Law
%J Journal of Textiles
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/214706
%X Colour fading of a reactive dye (C.I. Reactive Blue 19) dyed textile fabric was performed by atmospheric pressure plasma (APP) treatment with the use of plasma jet. Under the APP treatment condition of treatment time = 5£¿sec/mm; ignition power = 160£¿W; oxygen concentration = 1%; jet distance = 3£¿mm, significant colour-fading effect was achieved. For comparison purpose, the reactive dye dyed textile fabric was subjected to conventional enzymatic colour-fading process. Experimental results revealed that the APP-induced colour-fading effect was comparable with conventional enzymatic colour-fading process. 1. Introduction Recently, textile manufacturers start fading textile products which become very popular amongst young customers [1]. Therefore, companies have been trying in recent years to develop various techniques to improve the visual aspect of fabrics especially the faded looks [2¨C4]. The conventional technologies involve creating designs by fading the colour in certain areas of textile fabric using the processes such as sanding, sand blasting, brushing, prewashing, rinsing, stone washing, sand washing, snow washing, stone washing with enzymes, and bleaching [5, 6]. Although desired fading effect could be achieved by such methods, the following problems were encountered: (i) difficulty in application and time consuming due to problem in work flow; (ii) decrease in the wear resistance of the product; (iii) inability to create standard and reproducible designs; (iv) successful application of designs is not possible on all textile surfaces; (v) inability to create required nuances in shading; (vi) inability to produce identical fading effect on both sides of the products; (vii) loss of quality [7¨C9]. In addition, the production of faded looks in fabric using conventional technologies involves large amount of water and most of which being highly contaminated by chemical products used in the process. Also the time-consuming and old-fashioned processes are not suitable for mass production and increase the production cost [7¨C9]. In order to cope with these problems, a novel system that does not have the drawbacks involved in the conventional technologies should be adapted for treating the textile fabrics. The plasma treatment, being a dry treatment, would be an alternative to conventional technologies. This paper will investigate the use of atmospheric pressure plasma treatment for fading colour from textile fabrics. 2. Experimental 2.1. Materials 100% cotton single jersey-knitted fabric was used (fabric weight = 220£¿g/m2; yarn count = 32£¿S/2). The cotton
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtex/2013/214706/