Cotton and Polyester Fabrics Plasma Coated with Hydrogenated

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Figure 15.2: Air permeability (top) and tensile testing (below) for pure and plasma treated

fabrics with IO and WG finishing.

meability R clearly indicate that the air flow passing vertically through all tested specimens

does not affect breathing quality too much. For cotton, the highest value is determined for

the O2 treated fabric at around 90 mm/s. Followed by the 60 nm a-C:H layer, the untreated

sample and finally the 30 nm a-C:H coating. Adding IO lowers R by 20 - 25 mm/s for

all but the 30 nm thin coated fibers. The supplemental WG add-on to IO further lowers the

plasma treated cotton from 5 to 15 mm/s.

For PET the 60 nm a-C:H film reduces R about 20 mm/s probably due to the smooth-

ing of the fiber surface. Adding IO leads to a further slight reduction in R for all but the

thicker a-C:H films. The decrease is amplified to another ~5 mm/s by the combination of

WG. The lowest R is achieved with only WG finishing. For 30 nm a-C:H and IO add-on

a fairly high air permeability is recognized on PET, leading to the assumption that the sur-

face micro-roughness has changed.