Developing Super-Hydrophobic and Abrasion-Resistant Wool Fabrics Using Low-Pressure Hexafluoroethane Plasma Treatment

The growing interest in wool fibres as an eco-friendly and sustainable material for diverse industrial applications requires an enhancement of their functional performance. To address this, wool fabrics were treated in the present research with low-pressure hexafluoroethane (C₂F₆) plasma to impart superhydrophobicity and improve their abrasion resistance. Unscoured and scoured wool fabrics were treated with C₂F₆ while varying plasma power (80 W and 150 W), gas flow rate (12 sccm and 50 sccm) and treatment time (6 min and 20 min), and the effect of plasma parameters on the abrasion resistance, water contact angle and dyeing behaviour of the wool fabrics was studied. Martindale abrasion testing showed that the surface abrasion of the wool fabrics increased with the number of abrasion cycles, and the samples treated with 150 W, 20 min, 12 sccm showed superior abrasion resistance. The scoured wool fabrics showed a contact angle of ~124°, which was stable for only 4 min 40 s, whereas the plasma-treated samples showed a stable contact angle of over 150°, exhibiting a stable superhydrophobic behaviour. The C₂F₆ plasma treatment also significantly reduced the exhaustion of an acid dye by wool fabrics. The EDX study confirmed the deposition of fluorine-containing elements on the wool fabrics significantly altering their properties.