Investigation of binding properties of microcapsules on low pressure plasma treated textiles

Microencapsulation is a process to protect vulnerable active agents such as cosmetic products, antimicrobials, flame retardants, insecticides, pharmaceuticals, etc... from external factors by coating with a thin film of shell material. Textile materials are able to carry microcapsules with these various features, thus it is possible to employ microencapsulation as functionalizer in textile industry [1,2]. Nevertheless, microcapsules have to be bonded to textile material in order to protect usage conditions like washing. There are several ways to bond microcapsules onto textile materials: chemically with cross linking or binding with resin based materials. I n t hi s study, it is aimed to improve take up of microcapsules. So that fabrics are treated via low pressure plasma to extend absorbency [3]. In this context, textile fabrics are treated with acrylic acid. Discharge power is determined as 50 to 100 Watt, whereas plasma duration is 10 to 30 minutes. Cosmetic microcapsules are prepared by spray drying technique and applied to cotton fabric by padding method. In order to track release mechanism easily active material is chosen as β-caroten and the active material is covered with ethyl cellulose. The performance qualifications such as encapsulation success, presence of core substance and existence of the capsules on the textile surface are determined by SEM, DSC, FT-IR analyses and particle size measurement. Active agent content and the altered performance features of the fabrics are examined after repeated washing cycles.