Treatment of Metal and Textile Fabrics Surfaces Using Plasma

In the next few years, the progresses in plasma technology will play an increasing role in our lives, providing new sources of energy. The studies conducted by scientists on plasma state not only accelerate technological developments, but also describe the characteristics and types of plasmas and improve the understanding of natural phenomena. Plasmas represent the recent fourth state of matter in addition to the three fundamental states namely solids, liquids and gases. Plasma is defined as a state of matter where the gas phase is energized until atomic electrons are no longer associated with any particular atomic nucleus or as a matter that exists as a mixture of neutral atoms, ions, electrons, molecular ions and molecules present in excited and ground states. Plasma is the result of the ionization of atoms and the level of ionization is mainly controlled by temperature, where an increase of temperature increases the degree of ionization. The term “plasma” introduced by the scientist Irving Langmuir (1928) and comes from a Greek word that means moldable or Jelly material. Plasma may be produced by either heating a gas at high temperature until it is ionized or by subjecting it to a strong electric or magnetic fields. Investigators categorized plasma as non-thermal and thermal plasma. In non-thermal plasma, the electrons are at a much higher temperature than the ions and neutral particles however, in thermal plasma, the electrons and heavier particles are in thermal equilibrium at the same temperature. Plasma treatment of surfaces is initiated when electrons, molecules or neutral gas atoms, positive ions, ions along with excited gas molecules and atoms come together and interact with a particular surface. Plasma treatments can be utilized to develop thin protective layers to metal surfaces, as surface pretreatment and cleaning are the most important operations of coating technologies, in addition to induce both surface modifications and bulk property enhancements of textile materials.