A parameter study of the effect of a plasma-induced ozone colour-fading process on sulphur-dyed cotton fabric

Abstract

A plasma-induced ozone colour-fading treatment was used for treating a blue sulphur-dyed knitted cotton fabric. Since the process parameters of plasma-induced ozone colour-fading treatment are inter-related with one other, the final colour-fading results are affected. An orthogonal array testing strategy (OATS) method was used for determining the optimum conditions of the plasmainduced ozone colour-fading treatment in this study. Three process parameters used in the plasmainduced ozone colour-fading treatment, i. e., oxygen gas concentration (%), water content in fabric (%), and treatment time (minutes), were used in the optimization process. Experimental results reveal the optimum conditions for fading the colour by plasma-induced ozone colour-fading treatment are: (1) oxygen gas concentration = 70%; (2) water content in fabric = 35%; and (3) treatment time = 30 min. The order of importance of these parameters is: oxygen gas concentration > water content in fabric > treatment time. In addition, the plasma-induced ozone colour-fading treatment can effectively remove the colour from the dyed fabric and the colour-fading effect is uniform and even.