Anti-reflective coating for the deep coloring of PET fabrics using an atmospheric pressure plasma technique

To improve the deep coloring effect of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabrics, anti-reflective coating layers have been deposited on the surface of the fabrics with two different organo-silicon compounds such as HMDS, TTMSVS using atmospheric pressure plasma. Also, we compared polymerization of the organic precursor with the sputter etching method for the purpose of increasing color intensity. An MF power supply, whose frequency range was 10–50 kHz, was used as a plasma source and alumina (Al2O3) plates were used as a dielectric barrier with thickness of 2.7 mm. Polymerization processes were optimized by the control of variable parameters such as treatment time, voltage, frequency and organic sources. The quality of polymerized thin film has been analyzed using SEM and FT-IR. Reflectance was also measured by spectrophotometry to confirm the deep coloring effect. It was observed that the minimum reflectance value was obtained at the polymerized film thickness of 1500–2000 Å on PET using HMDS and TTMSVS monomers. An addition of O2 promoted the decomposition of organic monomers and contributed to the enhancement of the color intensity on the PET surface.