Abstract
It has been reported that low temperature plasma treatment offers a good shrink resistance property for wool fabrics. However it is not clear at present time how the changes in chemical structure on wool surface treated with the plasma affect the shrink resistance property.
In this study wool fabrics were treated with plasma and the surface of the fiber was analyzed by ESCA. It was found that the disulfide bonds involved in the fiber are severed in the process of plasma treatment and the residual disulfide bonds are related largely to the shrink resistance property. Also the contents of lipid were decreased by the treatment. The shrink resistance property was discussed in terms of the contents of disulfide bond and lipid contained in the surface of the plasma treated wool fibers.
