  The textile industry is searching for innovative production techniques to
improve the product quality, as well as society requires new finishing
techniques working in environmental respect. Plasma surface treatments show
distinct advantages, because they are able to modify the surface properties of
inert materials, sometimes with environment friendly devices. For fabrics, cold
plasma treatments require the development of reliable and large systems. Such
systems are now existing and the use of plasma physics in industrial problems
is rapidly increasing. On textile surfaces, three main effects can be obtained
depending on the treatment conditions: the cleaning effect, the increase of
microroughness (anti-pilling finishing of wool) and the production of radicals
to obtain hydrophilic surfaces. Plasma polymerisation, that is the deposition
of solid polymeric materials with desired properties on textile substrates, is
under development. The advantage of such plasma treatments is that the
modification turns out to be restricted in the uppermost layers of the
substrate, thus not affecting the overall desirable bulk properties. Here, we
present the research results on the use of plasma physics in textile properties
modification. Treatments on natural, wool and cotton, and on synthetic polymers
to improve wetting are shown. Hydrophilic-hydrophobic treatments,
dirt-repellent coatings are presented. Low-pressure and atmospheric-pressure
glow discharge systems are also discussed.
