Plasma treatments for coloration of textiles, fibers and other substrates

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10428455-B2
Application number	US-201415103849-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 5, 2014
Priority date	Dec 13, 2013
Publication date	Oct 1, 2019
Grant date	Oct 1, 2019

Abstract

A method of treating a substrate, comprising providing a substrate having a generally sheet or planar form or a fiber or yarn form; providing a colorant to be set at the surface of the substrate; and subjecting the substrate and colorant to reactive species from a plasma generated by an atmospheric plasma apparatus until the colorant is set at the surface of the substrate. A method of setting a colorant on a substrate, comprising performing an etch operation, or plasma pre-treatment to change surface charge, on a substrate using a plasma, particularly a plasma generated at atmospheric conditions, to create a desired surface texture, or surface charge, at the surface of substrate; and depositing a colorant on the surface under plasma or non-plasma conditions; and allowing the colorant to set at the surface of the substrate.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of treating a substrate, comprising:
providing a substrate comprising a textile having a generally sheet or planar form or a substrate comprising a fiber or yarn form;
providing a colorant to be set at the surface of the substrate; and
at about atmospheric pressure, subjecting the substrate and the colorant to reactive species from a plasma generated by an atmospheric plasma apparatus until the colorant affixes to the substrate via chemical bonding to a desired color, wherein the energy of the plasma is sufficient to overcome bond energies to cause permanent bonding of the colorant on the substrate, without the substrate being immersed in a dye bath and without subjecting the substrate and colorant to a separate thermal fixation step, and wherein the affixing of the substrate provides a wash durable coating on the substrate and the change of color without negatively affecting the bulk properties of the substrate.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the substrate includes a colorant that is deposited on the surface of the substrate before the substrate is subjected to the reactive species of the plasma, and wherein once the substrate with the colorant is subjected to the reactive species, the reactive species facilitates the affixing of the colorant at the surface of the substrate.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the colorant is deposited on the substrate after the substrate is placed in a chamber of the plasma apparatus.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the colorant comprises a dye that is fed into the plasma-generating electrical field of plasma apparatus and the dye and/or surface sites on the substrate are transformed into reactive species such that the dye and substrate chemically bond together.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the substrate is placed within the plasma-generating electrical field of the plasma apparatus.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the substrate is placed outside the plasma generating electrical field of the plasma apparatus but in communication with the reactive species generated in the plasma, the reactive species facilitating the fixing of the substrate to the colorant and/or of the colorant to itself so as to affix the colorant into a coextensive coating on the surface of the substrate.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
applying the colorant to the substrate by inkjet printing, supercritical CO 2 dyeing, or solution dyeing; and
then subjecting the textile to the reactive species until the affixing of the colorant on the substrate is completed to the desired degree.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the colorant is selected from the group of: acid dyes, basic dyes, disperse dyes, direct or substantive, mordant and chrome, pigment, organic, solvent, azoic, sulfur, acetate rayon dyes, nylon dyes, cellulose acetate dyes, and vat dyes.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the colorant is selected from the group of: azo dyes, anthraquinone dyes, benzodifuranone dyes, polycyclic aromatic carbonyl dyes, indigoid dyes, polymethine and related dyes, styryl dyes, di- and tri-aryl carbonium dyes, phthalocyanine dyes, quinophthalone dyes, sulfur dyes, nitro and nitroso dyes, and miscellaneous dyes.

10. The method or construct of claim 1 wherein the substrate comprises a textile material.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the substrate comprises a textile; and the colorant comprises a monomer to be set at the surface of the textile; and wherein the subjecting of the textile and/or the colorant to the atmospheric plasma conditions is sufficient to set the colorant monomer at a surface of the substrate; and continuing the conditions until the monomer polymerizes as a polymer layer at the surface of the substrate.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising performing an etch operation on the substrate using a plasma, to create a desired surface texture at the surface of substrate; and then depositing the colorant on the surface under the atmospheric plasma; and allowing the colorant to affix the substrate to the desired degree.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein helium, argon, krypton, neon, and/or xenon gas is used as a carrier gas in generating the plasma.

14. The method of claim 2 wherein while subjecting the substrate and the colorant to the reactive species from the plasma generated by an atmospheric plasma apparatus, the plasma apparatus maintains the carrier gas at a temperature of about 50° C. or less.

15. The method of claim 2 wherein while subjecting the substrate and the colorant to the reactive species from the plasma generated by an atmospheric plasma apparatus, the plasma apparatus produces a stable discharge at power densities between about 0.1 W/cm3 and 200 W/cm3.

16. The method of claim 2 wherein while subjecting the substrate and the colorant to the reactive species from the plasma generated by an atmospheric plasma apparatus, the plasma apparatus produces a stable discharge at power densities between about 0.1 W/cm3 and 200 W/cm3 and maintains the carrier gas at a temperature of about 50° C. or less.

17. The method of claim 1 , comprising: at about atmospheric pressure, subjecting the substrate and the colorant to the reactive species from the plasma until the colorant affixes to the substrate via a covalent bond.

18. The method of claim 1 , comprising: providing electrical energy to the atmospheric plasma apparatus so as to generate the plasma using a frequency range between about 1 MHz and about 100Mhz.

Assignees

• North Face Apparel Corp

Inventors

• Gladish Justin Lee
• Smith Mary-Ellen
• Page Graham C

Classifications

• D06P5/2011

  Application of vibrations, pulses or waves for non-thermic purposes · CPC title

• D06P5/2016 Primary

  Application of electric energy · CPC title

• D06P5/30

  Ink jet printing · CPC title

• D06P1/94

  using dyes dissolved in solvents which are in the supercritical state · CPC title

• D06M10/08

  Organic compounds · CPC title