[en] This study investigates the influence of the He/O₂ atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) and ultrasound treatment on desizing of the blended sizes of starch phosphate and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) on cotton fabrics. The AFM and SEM results indicate that APPJ treatment can increase the surface roughness of the sized fabrics. The SEM results also reveal that the fiber surfaces are nearly as clean as unsized fiber surfaces after 35 s treatment followed by ultrasound desizing for 20 min at 60 °C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicates that oxygen-based functional groups increase on the surfaces of the plasma treated sized fabrics. The PDR of the sized fabrics treated by APPJ dramatically increases when ultrasound was introduced during the desizing process, and the desizing time and temperature are greatly reduced. Wickability analysis reveals that the capillary height of the fabrics treated by plasma and ultrasound was higher than that of the fabrics treated by plasma and hot washing under different plasma exposure time. Therefore, the combination of the APPJ and ultrasound has shown higher effectiveness in desizing and provides an alternative approach that decreases the water, energy and chemicals consumption.

[en] The influence of the He/O₂ atmospheric pressure plasma jet pre-treatment on subsequent NaHCO₃ desizing of blends of starch phosphate and poly(vinyl alcohol) on cotton fabrics is investigated. Atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy analysis indicate that the surface topography of the samples has significantly changed and the surface roughness increases with an increase in plasma exposure time. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis shows that a larger number of oxygen-containing polar groups are formed on the sized fabric surface after the plasma treatment. The results of the percent desizing ratio (PDR) indicate that the plasma pretreatment facilitated the blended sizes removal from the cotton fabrics in subsequent NaHCO₃ treatment and the PDR increases with prolonging plasma treatment time. The plasma technology is a promising pretreatment for desizing of blended sizes due to dramatically reduced desizing time.

[en] The influence of He/O₂ atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) treatment on subsequent wet desizing of polyacrylate on PET fabrics was studied in the present paper. Weight loss results indicated that the weight loss increased with an increase of plasma treatment time. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed an increased surface roughness after the plasma treatment. SEM also showed that the fiber surfaces were as clean as unsized fibers after 35 s treatment followed by NaHCO₃ desizing. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicated that oxygen-based functional groups increased for the plasma treated polyacrylate sized fabrics. The percent desizing ratio (PDR) results showed that more than 99% PDR was achieved after 65 s plasma treatment followed by a 5 min NaHCO₃ desizing. Compared to conventional wet desizing, indicating that plasma treatment could significantly reduce desizing time.