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The Influence of Low-Pressure Plasma and Ozone Pretreatment on the Stability of Polyester/Chitosan Structure in the Washing Process—Part 1
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Researchers applied argon and oxygen plasma and ozone pretreatments to polyester fabrics before coating them with chitosan, finding that the resulting polyester/chitosan structures significantly reduced fiber particle release during washing—particularly in the critical first wash cycles—while preserving the fabric's mechanical and functional properties.
The global problem of environmental pollution by textile particles from various sources has led to the need to research preventive methods to reduce the occurrence of particles in environmental systems. In this research, plasma and ozone pretreatment are used as environmentally friendly technologies to achieve specific surface modifications of polyester fabrics and create a stable polyester/chitosan structure that reduces the release of fibre particles during the washing process and does not affect mechanical and functional properties. The effects of advanced treatments of the surface of polyester fabrics were realised with argon (Ar) and oxygen (O2) plasma and ozone (O3) after subsequent modification with a chitosan agent. The efficiency of such pretreatments of the fabric surface as well as the stability of the polyester/chitosan structure was analysed on the basis of the changes in the physical-mechanical and chemical properties of the treated polyester standard fabric. Despite the changes in the mechanical properties of the pretreated materials, the favourable protective effect of chitosan in the resulting polyester/chitosan structures after advanced pretreatments was confirmed in all washing cycles, especially in the first cycles, which are considered crucial for significant particle release.
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