Characterization of an atmospheric pressure plasma jet and its application for treatment of non-woven textiles

Atmospheric pressure plasma jets are well-known in the plasma chemistry community because of their novel applications. However, in spite of a large amount of publications, the physical chemistry of plasma jet/surface interactions is still unknown. In this work, an atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) in pure argon will be used to modify the surface of PET non-woven textiles. In a first part of the paper, the plasma jet will be characterized using current-voltage waveforms, time resolved ICCD images and optical emission spectroscopy. Afterwards, the influence of water vapor addition on these plasma characteristics will be briefly mentioned. In a second part of this work, one layer and several textile layers will be modified using the APPJ in pure argon. These surface modification results clearly show that the APPJ in argon can effectively enhance the hydrophilicity of several textile layers and can thus modify the inner surface of porous materials.