Silver incorporation on viscose and cotton fibers after air, nitrogen and oxygen DBD plasma pretreatment

Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) pretreatments in air, nitrogen and oxygen plasma of viscose and cotton fabrics with subsequent immobilization of silver were studied. Surface activation of treated fibers was evaluated through subsequent sorption of silver from aqueous AgNO₃ solution, after which changes in the surface morphology were monitored and quantity of silver deposition on fabric was measured. The plasma treatment was done in volume DBD discharge with the gap distance between electrodes of 0.5 and 2 mm. Depending on the gas used in pretreatment, significant difference in the way silver bonds to the textile surface was found. Nitrogen plasma pretreatment with gap distance of 0.5 mm led to the homogeneous fiber coating by silver nanoparticles with average size up to 300 nm estimated by SEM, while fibers treated in oxygen plasma adsorbed silver in a form of ions. The plasma pretreatment in air leads to changes that contain features of fibers treated in both nitrogen and oxygen DBD plasma. Distinct difference of used configuration of the plasma source is a use of gap distance 0.5 mm, which is in order of textile thickness. Observed results allow us to report a new way how to immobilize silver nanoparticles onto textile fibers using plasma pretreatment with subsequent sorption of silver from aqueous solution.