Surface Modification of Poly(lactic acid) Fabrics with Plasma Pretreatment and Chitosan/Siloxane Polyesters Coating for Color Strength Improvement

Abstract

As people in the 21st century become increasingly environmentally aware, environmentally friendly products have come into focus. As such, environmentally friendly textiles and eco-textiles have become an international trend in research and development. Poly(lactic acid) fiber, which is biodegradable, holds much promise, but it is difficult to deep dye. This study used chitosan, succine anhydride, siloxane, and polyethylene glycol to produce a series of chitosan/siloxane polyesters that have a hydrophilic component (chitosan) and a hydrophobic component (siloxane), and this chitosan/siloxane polyester can be coated on poly(lactic acid) fiber, which we had subjected to Argon plasma treatment to increase their antimicrobial properties and to increase the fibers dyeing efficiency. The study shows that, after the surface plasma treatment, longer PEG chain lengths resulted in higher K/S values. This result suggests that the surface plasma pretreatment and chitosan/siloxane polyesters coating showed that lower ∆E values result in more leveling dyeing of poly(lactic acid) fiber.