FUNCTIONAL SURFACES

Functional groups are required at material surfaces, when chemical bonds should be achieved. Textile and fibers need functional groups e.g. for lamination, coloration, coating as well as for fiber-reinforced composites and tissue engineering (Fig. 1).

ACTIVATION

At Empa both wet-chemical and plasma-assisted activations are performed. Functional groups are directly applied to the material surfaces. Aging effects are minimized by the deposition of nanoscaled coatings with a high density of functional groups (Fig. 2).

INNOVATION

The further development of conventional, wet-chemical treatments and the research on dry plasma processes to demonstrate the applicability for textile materials enable novel functional fibers and textiles using environmentally sound processes.

RESULTS

• Long-term stable hydrophilization

• Monolayer or nanoscaled coatings requiring low use of chemicals

• Homogeneous or selective treatments

Contact

Dr. Dirk Hegemann  +41 58 765 72 68
Dirk.Hegemann@empa.ch