Effect of Oxygen Plasma on the Polyester Coating with Conical Copper Nanorods

The current study focuses on the effect of surface pretreatment on the physical properties and surface morphology of the coated fabric with copper nanoparticles. The pretreatment steps were carried out using alkaline hydrolysis and oxygen plasma etching. The deposition of copper nanoparticles was achieved by the chemical reduction of copper ions by utilizing reducing agent from its salt solution. The scanning electron microscopy )SEM(and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy )FTIR) were used respectively for detailed investigation of surface morphology and chemical structure of the pretreated and the coated fabric. The surface electrical resistance was measured using a digital multi meter based on two point probe technique. Interestingly, the microscopic images showed the formation of copper conical nanorods for the fabric pretreated with oxygen plasma and pseudo-spherical nanoparticles for the alkaline hydrolyzed fabric sample. The FTIR spectroscopy data for plasma treated fabric demonstrates the higher peak intensity for OH functional group compared to that for the alkaline hydrolyzed pretreated fabric. The acquired experimental results confirmed a uniform copper nanorods coating and lower surface resistance for the samples treated with oxygen plasma compared to those treated with alkaline hydrolysis.