Effect of glow discharge-polymer treatments on the shrinkage behavior and physical properties of wool fabric

The application of glow discharge plasma to the surface of wool fabric is known to increase fiber hydrophilicity and confer a partial shrink resist effect during washing. In this work, four different polymer systems, Basolan SW, Basolan MW, Polymer G, and Polymer PL, are applied onto plasma treated wool fabric to enhance the degree of shrink resistance. The level of shrink resistance varies significantly with plasma-polymer treatments, depending on the kind of polymer system applied, with Polymers PL and G conferring excellent shrink resistance even for very short plasma pretreatment times of 2 minutes. The extent of weight loss during washing is also minimized for all plasma-polymer applications relative to polymer-only or chlorinated-polymer treated wool. Fabric tear strength and handle are adversely affected by plasma treatment, but these properties are favorably restored on polymer application. Wrinkle recovery decreases with plasma treatment time, and this property is not improved with polymer application.