Adhesion properties of DBD plasma treated nylon 66 fabric- Optimisation of plasma process parameters

Optimisation of DBD plasma process parameters for maximising the adhesion between nylon 66 and PU using Design-Expert 10.0. is reported in this paper. Out of various available designs, the Box-Beheken design (BBD) was adopted for optimisation of plasma process parameters and to evaluate the effect of their interactions on wicking, peel off strength and He intensity. Plasma process parameters such as power used for plasma generation, exposure time and distance between the electrodes were selected for optimisation. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to assess the quality of statistical model fit. Fisher's F-test, the coefficient of determination and probability values were used to evaluate the quality and model terms. It was observed that plasma power and treatment time are the significant terms affecting the adhesion properties of the plasma treated nylon 66 fabric. Chemical species generated in the plasma zone were monitored online by an optical emission spectrometer (OES). Change in surface morphology was studied by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Chemical changes on the surface of the plasma treated samples were analysed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and the generation of hydrophilic reactive groups is reported.