Research regarding the cover factor of magnetron sputtering plasma coated fabrics

Buildtech technical textiles domain requires new technologies for manufacturing flexible eco-friendly materials. Magnetron sputtering allows nanometer scale coatings on fabrics with various functionalities and benefits. Novel fabric functionalities consist in electromagnetic shielding and fireproofing. This paper aims to analyse the cover factor of raw and plasma coated fabrics, meant for the above mentioned functionalities. Fabrics with fibrous composition of 100% cotton and 100% polyester (PES) were coated with Cu films by magnetron sputtering in order to render surface electrical conductivity and fireproof character. Fabric density and yarn diameter were determined for raw and plasma coated fabrics in order to compute the cover factor, while atomic absorption tests were performed in order to determine the content of deposited copper. The cover factor of plasma coated fabric slightly decreases as a function of the process time for the four analysed samples within the study. This physical behaviour is underlined by optical microscope images of raw and coated fabrics and can be explained through slight decrease of yarn diameter after plasma magnetron coating. Moreover, obtained coated fabrics presented good performance regarding electromagnetic shielding, measured with TEM cell and fire-proofing character, evidenced by melting point determination.