Surface properties of fluorocarbon plasma-treated cotton fabrics

Cotton fabrics were treated by low temperature plasma with fluorocarbons such as hexafluoropropene,perfluoroheptane,perfluorocyclobutane,1,1,1,3,3,3-Hexafluoro-2-propanol,2,2,2-trifluoroethanol in order to reduce the industrial effluent from traditional wet processing of textile.The fluorocarbon plasma treated cotton fabric has certain water and oil repellent properties.The C7F16and C3F6 modified surfaces were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS),which indicated more than 50% fluorine atoms were incorporated in the surface of the cotton fabrics after plasma treatment.Washing and extraction would remove some fluoro-containing groups but there are still more than 10% fluorine atoms remained on the surface of the cotton fabrics.