Excellent adhesion of electrospun nanofiber (NF) to textile support is crucial for a broad range of their bioapplications, e.g., wound dressing development. We compared the effect of several low- and atmospheric pressure plasma modifications on the adhesion between two parts of composite-polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibrous mat (functional part) and polypropylene (PP) spunbond fabric (support). The support fabrics were modified before electrospinning by low-pressure plasma oxygen treatment or amine plasma polymer thin film or treated by atmospheric pressure plasma slit jet (PSJ) in argon or argon/nitrogen. The adhesion was evaluated by tensile test and loop test adapted for thin NF mat measurement and the trends obtained by both tests largely agreed. Although all modifications improved the adhesion significantly (at least twice for PSJ treatments), low-pressure oxygen treatment showed to be the most effective as it strengthened adhesion by a factor of six. The adhesion improvement was ascribed to the synergic effect of high treatment homogeneity with the right ratio of surface functional groups and sufficient wettability. The low-pressure modified fabric also stayed long-term hydrophilic (ten months), even though surfaces usually return to a non-wettable state (hydrophobic recovery). In contrast to XPS, highly surface-sensitive water contact angle measurement proved suitable for monitoring subtle surface changes.

Department of Condensed Matter Physics Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kotlářská 2 611 37 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Physical Electronics Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kotlářská 2 611 37 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Theoretical and Experimental Electrical Engineering Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication Brno University of Technology Technická 12 616 00 Brno Czech Republic

Faculty of Science J E Purkyně University Pasteurova 15 400 96 Ústí nad Labem Czech Republic

Institute of Physics of Materials The Czech Academy of Sciences Žižkova 22 616 00 Brno Czech Republic

Plasma Technologies for Materials Central European Institute of Technology CEITEC Brno University of Technology Purkyňova 123 612 00 Brno Czech Republic

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