Chemical protection properties of thermal workwear fabrics obtained by different repellent finishes

Protective clothing used in workplaces with multiple hazards (petrochemical industry, etc.) must have multi-functional properties. In this thesis, it has been studied to give chemical protection properties to meta-aramide fabrics by applying water/oil repellent substances which have different properties. With this purpose, fluorocarbons which have two different carbon numbers (six and eight carbons) and silicone water repellent were applied to meta-aramide fabric. Protective clothing that was produced from inherently non-flammable fibers must be decontaminated after a certain number of uses. Acrylic acid, air and oxygen plasma processes were applied by using radio frequency low pressure plasma device to increase the effect of water repellent chemicals applied to fabrics and/or to increase the washing durability. Water repellency, oil repellency, flame spread test, limiting oxygen index test (LOI) and liquid chemical penetration tests (with sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid and butanol) were applied to the meta-aramid fabric after water repellent application. As a result of the study, it was determined that plasma treatments increase oil repellency degrees and after decontamination of fabrics oil repellency degrees almost remain same. As a result of application fluorocarbons and silicone, there is a decrease in LOI values of fabrics, but it maintains non-flammable properties. At liquid chemical penetration tests, fabrics which applied fluorochemicals have very high repellency values. Adequate repellency was not achieved with the silicone application. It was observed that the water repellency values were very high in the test liquids except for butanol in the fabrics applied after the plasma pre-treatment.