Effect of Fluorination Treatment on Cotton Wettability, Dyeability and Mechanical Properties and Characterization of Surface Changes by XPS

Cotton fabric was treated with fluorine gas in a nitrogen atmosphere. The effect of fluorination treatments on wettability, whiteness index, dyeability and mechanical properties of cotton fabrics were assessed. Kawabata analysis shows that fluorination treatment increases shear stiffness (G), shear hysteresis (2HG5), bending stiffness (B) and overall fabric stiffness (Koshi) on cotton fabric. Fluorination increases hydrophilicity of cotton by reducing the wetting time to less than 10 seconds for fluorinated cotton. In addition, the uniformity of wetting improves for the fluorinated samples. Fluorinated cotton dyed with two different direct dyes shows a slightly decreased exhaustion rate and color yield. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) was used to characterize untreated and fluorinated cotton. XPS indicates that oxidation, fluorination and formation bonds - COO and –CHF at 289.5 eV occurred on the fluorinated cotton surface.