Electrical and Optical Characterization of Dielectric Barrier Discharge and Its Application to Plasma Treatment of Poly (ethylene terephtalate) (PET) Fibers

A newly developed atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma treatment system (PLA-PLA) was used in this study. The discharge is characterized by electrical analysis and optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The characters of the discharge were found to change systematically with an increase of applied voltage and variation of flow ratio of O2/Ar in the plasma. The OES analysis revealed that the relatively weak spectrum line can be detected beyond a certain applied power value. It is also found that the emission intensity of main species in the discharge spectrum will be enhanced with the increase of applied power. To improve the wettability, PET fiber was treated in this system. The surface morphology and properties of fiber after plasma treatment were investigated by both scanning electron microscope (SEM) and contact angle measurement.