Received: 27 September 2019 Revised: 8 October 2019 Accepted: 10 October 2019

DOI: 10.1002/pat.4792

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Novel synthesis of copper oxide on fabric samples by cathodic

cage plasma deposition

Fernanda Fernades1 | Edglay Rocha Filho2 | Ivan Souza2 | Igor Nascimento3 |

Rômulo Sousa4 | Edalmy Almeida3 | Michele Feitor5 | Thércio Costa3 |

Muhammad Naeem6 | Javed Iqbal7

1
Programa de Pós‐Graduação em Engenharia
Têxtil, UFRN, Natal, Brazil The fabrics with copper or copper oxide deposition are of considerable interest
2
Programa de Pós‐Graduação em Engenharia because of exceptional antibacterial properties, which are useable in medical, textiles,
Mecânica, UFRN, Natal, Brazil
3
and hygiene applications. Unfortunately, the conventional techniques take long pro-
Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica
(DEM), UFRN, Natal, Brazil cessing time, complex equipment, and combination of several processing steps (nano-
4
Departamento de Engenharia de Materiais, particles synthesis and their deposition on fabrics). In this novel study, cathodic cage
UFPI, Teresina, Brazil
5
plasma deposition assisted with copper cathodic cage is used for the synthesis of the
Departamento de Engenharia Téxtil, UFRN,
Natal, Brazil copper oxide on polyester and polyamide fabrics. For the enhancement of synthesis
6
Department of Physics, Women University of efficiency, the effect of cathodic cage lid thickness is also investigated. The samples
Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Bagh, Pakistan
are assessed by using scanning electron microscopy, elemental dispersive spectros-
7
Department of Physics, University of Azad
Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, Pakistan copy, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It is found that using cathodic cage
plasma deposition, fabrics can be successfully synthesized by the copper oxide with
Correspondence
Muhammad Naeem, Department of Physics, comparatively small treatment time, cost‐effectively, and environmentally friendly.
Women University of Azad Jammu and Interestingly, cathodic cage plasma treatment is already proved to be working effec-
Kashmir, Bagh, Pakistan.
Email: mnaeem@wuajk.edu.pk tively on industrial scale; thus, it is predicted to be of noteworthy importance for fab-
rics processing on large‐scale garments manufacturing and hospitals.

K E YW O RD S

cathodic cage plasma deposition, copper nanoparticles, copper oxide, hollow cathode effect,
polyamide and polyester

1 | IN T R O DU C T ION polyester fabrics are of considerable interest because of broad uses

In the recent decade, several attempts have been made for the synthe-
sis and application of nanometals and their oxide coatings on fabric
samples because of their exceptional applications.1,2 The metal oxide
films (such as copper or silver oxides) on fabric exhibit excellent anti-
microbial performance against Staphylococcus aureus bacteria.2,3 Also,
fabrics with metal oxide coatings exhibit enhanced protection from
ultraviolet (UV) radiation.4 The demand for fabrics with antimicrobial
properties is growing rapidly in bedspreads in order to avoid/reduce
5
the probability of nosocomial infections. In particular, the fabrics with
copper oxide films own wide biocidal features including antifungal,
antibacterial, antiviral, and extinguish dust mites.6 The polyamide and
in the manufacturing of medical nonimplantable substances (such as
numerous bandages and plasters) and hygienic/health care products
(surgical gowns, uniforms, masks, hosieries, etc).7
The synthesis of copper and copper oxides coatings on various
fabrics is under consideration from several decades by using numerous
techniques. Berendjchi et al 8 produced a coating of copper nanoparti-
cles on cotton fabric by using doped silica‐based sols, and approximate
time for nanoparticles preparation, samples immersion in solution, and
dryness was 27 hours. Anita et al9 synthesized copper oxide on cotton
fabric by wet chemical method, and preparation of nanoparticles takes
around 26 hours, and further time was required for deposition of
nanoparticles on cotton fabric. Emam et al10 modified the surface of

Polym Adv Technol. 2019;1–7. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pat © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1
2 FERNADES
FIGURE 1 Cut‐off view of the deposition reactor along with
cathodic cage and sample positioning outside cathodic cage [Colour
figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
cellulose fiber by copper oxide deposition using copper‐D‐gluconate
complexes. The treatment time in this process was extremely large,
such as fibers were conditioned for 48 hours prior to experiment,
drying time 4 hours, and samples immersed in solution for 24 hours.
11
Das et al synthesized the copper oxide nanostructure using a
combination of magnetron sputtering system and heat treatment in
furnace, and treatment temperature and time were quite larger, and
2
complex equipment required. Abramov et al deposited copper oxide
on cotton samples using sonochemical system, which requires
5
quite complicated equipment. Nahhal et al also prepared copper
oxide–coated cotton fibers by ultrasonic irradiation technique, and
3
whole process takes time more than 26 hours. Perelshtein et al also
synthesized copper oxide nanocomposite on cotton fabric using
ultrasonic irradiation and found the antibacterial activity of coated
FIGURE 2 Visual features of samples with and without treatment.
A, Polyamide. B, Polyester [Colour figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
FIGURE 3 Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE‐SEM) images of polyamide samples (A) without treatment and (B) treated by using
4‐mm‐thick cathodic cage lid [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
ET AL.
cotton fabric. Suryaprabha and Sethuraman12 developed copper‐based
super‐hydrophobic coating on cotton fabric by chemical reduction
method, which takes immersion time 1 hour, hydrophobization of 12
hours, and drying time of 4 hours. The literature on the development
of metallic nanoparticles on polyester and polyamide fabrics is very
limited.7,13 A comprehensive survey of copper/copper oxide synthesis
reveals the beneficial effects of such coatings on antibacterial aspects.
However, these coatings were prepared by conventional techniques
including wet chemical method, doped silica‐based sols, D‐gluconate
complexes, magnetron sputtering, sonochemical system, ultrasonic
irradiation, and chemical reduction method. These techniques require
very long processing time, complex equipment, expensive chemicals,
and combination of various processes (preparation of nanoparticles,
deposition of fabrics, dryness, etc). Thus, such techniques are not
more favorable on large‐scale applications including in hospitals and
garments manufacturing. In this regard, an alternative and more
feasible technique is compulsory, which develops these coatings
without shortcomings.
Around two decades ago, an innovative surface modification tech-
nique, cathodic cage plasma deposition (CCPD), was introduced, which
is widely applicable for surface modification of steels.14,15 This tech-
nique is environmental friendly, as compared with other methods as
described above, and is cost‐effective. This technique is based on
the deposition of sputtered cathodic cage material on the sample to
be processed; thus, it is extensively used for samples alloying with
cathodic cage material.16 It is used for silver alloying as reported by
Lin et al17 and Dong et al,18 niobium alloying as reported by Lin
et al,19 titanium alloying as reported by Yazdani et al,20 and copper
alloying as reported by Dong et al.21 Using this fact, we tried to attain
copper oxide coating on polymer and polyamide using this technique.
In a previous article,22 we reported the novel idea of implanting
copper in polytetrafluoroethylene samples, using CCPD assisted with
copper cathodic cage, where the samples were kept at floating poten-
tial inside cathodic cage. As the fabric samples are highly temperature
sensitive (and temperature is high enough inside cathodic cage
because of hollow cathode effect), thus in this study, fabric samples
are treated by keeping samples outside cathodic cage placed at the
upper flange of reactor (effectiveness of this system to process outside
the cathodic cage is already tested in our previous report23).
FERNADES ET AL. 3

2 | E X P E R IM E N T A L D ET A I L S

Polyamide and polyester fabric with approximately 11 × 7 mm samples

were attached to the reactor upper flange using adhesive tape
(Figure 1). Before attaching samples in all treatments, the flange was
wet sanded using 1200 grit sandpaper in order to remove impurities
and depositions from previous treatments. Polyester and polyamide
samples with specific weight of 138.28 and 92.48 g/m2, respectively,
were used, and the choice of these fabrics was based on their abun-
dant industrial application, especially in the medical field.7,13
In this study, copper cathodic cage was used having dimensions 70
mm (external) and 61 mm (internal) diameter and 26 mm in height
without any holes on side walls. The top lid of cathodic cage was 65
mm in diameter and uniformly distributed holes of 8 mm diameter. FIGURE 4 Variation of current, voltage, and power with change in
cathodic cage lid thickness [Colour figure can be viewed at
The thickness of lid was changed to attain the best deposition effi-
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
ciency in following steps: 2, 4, 6, 12, 18, and 24 mm. The length‐to‐
diameter ratios of lids was L/D = 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.5, 2.25, and 3.
alteration in color of both samples with change in cathodic cage lid
The minimum distance between samples placed on the reactor upper
thickness, which is indication of change in deposition rate of copper
flange and the cage lid's external surface varied from 190 to 166 mm
sputtered from cathodic cage. The samples appear to be darker with
according to the increase in lid thickness.
increase in lid thickness; thus, it is visual symptom of improved effi-
The deposition process was carried out in argon atmosphere, and
ciency of processing system.
processing power details are given in Figure 4, and further details
For better understanding of results, the scanning electron micros-
can be found in previous article.23 The objective to choose these pro-
copy (SEM) images of polyamide samples before and after plasma pro-
cessing conditions was to generate the hollow cathode effect in the
cessing are depicted in Figure 3, and corresponding elemental
holes of lid, in order to guarantee higher copper deposition and a uni-
composition obtained by EDS is given in Table 1. The base sample
form process temperature. The processing was carried out for 3 hours.
shows the smooth shinny appearance, which is changed to be rough
The samples were analyzed using following techniques: X‐ray pho-
matt after processing. The treated sample depicts the appearance of
toelectron spectroscopy (XPS), performed by the Grupo de
particles. The appearance of particles on fabrics can be attributed to
Crescimento de Cristais e MateriaisCerâmicos da USP—São Carlos,
the well‐known mechanism of cathodic cage plasma system24:
using a Theta Probe appropriate for use on ultrathin films; and field
because of bombardment of energetic argon ions, the cathodic cage
emission scanning electron microscopy (FE‐SEM) with attached energy
material sputtered and mixed in the plasma environment and got
dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDS), performed by the Departamento
deposited on the sample surface after reacting with environment
de Materiais—DEMAT da UFRN, using a ZEISS Auriga 40 capturing
gases. In this study, argon gas is used for processing due intense
images magnified 5 and 12 kx.
sputtering of cage material; however, rough vacuum level is used,
and thus, background oxygen contents are still present in the reactor.
3 | R E S U L T S AN D D I S C U S S I O N The sputtered copper mixed with the oxygen and probably deposited
on the samples surface in the form of copper oxide (which can be fur-
The samples surface appearance after treatment with various thick- ther clarified in latter sections). Although this model proposes that the
nesses of cathodic cage lid is shown in Figure 2. It clearly indicates sputtered material is deposited on the samples placed inside the

TABLE 1 The elemental composition of untreated and treated samples using various thickness of cathodic cage lid

Polyamide Sample Polyester Sample

Carbon Oxygen Copper Carbon Oxygen Copper

Lid
Thickness wt% at% wt% at% wt% at% wt% at% wt% at% wt% at%

Untreated 72.26 77.63 27.74 22.37 – – 73.42 78.63 26.58 21.37 – –

2 63.45 79.4 14.44 15.11 22.11 5.49 57.27 73.69 20.55 20.82 22.18 5.49
4 60.33 80.01 13.49 13.43 26.17 6.56 54.84 73.24 20.46 20.52 24.70 6.24
6 24.73 56.19 9.00 15.35 66.27 28.46 34.02 62.60 13.98 19.32 52.00 18.09
12 22.31 54.62 6.86 12.60 70.83 32.77 9.92 31.61 7.89 18.88 82.19 49.51
18 22.00 52.25 9.56 17.04 68.44 30.71 12.38 36.48 8.91 19.70 78.71 43.82
24 52.90 80.49 6.97 7.96 40.13 11.54 49.14 71.14 18.37 19.97 32.49 8.89
4 FERNADES ET AL.

cathodic cage, but it is also acceptable here because samples in our deposited on surface is not clearly measurable. However, while depos-
study are also placed at floating placed outside the cathodic cage, as iting copper oxide on glass substrate under identical conditions, the
we already verified the efficiency of this system to process samples size of particles was 13 to 32 nm.23 Thus, we predict that nanostruc-
23
outside cage in our previous article. tured copper oxide is developed on polyamide and polyester fabrics.
For the confirmation of the above‐proposed explanation, the ele- In order to confirm the exact chemical state of elements present in
mental composition of base material and treated samples is given in the base material and processed samples, XPS analysis is performed.
Table 1. The EDS of base material of both samples depicts the pres- The characteristics XPS spectra of polyamide and polyester fabrics are
ence of carbon and oxygen elements, and presence of oxygen is obvi- displayed in Figures 5 and 6. These XPS spectra have been charge
ously due to reaction of sample with oxygen present in the corrected by considering C 1s peak at 284.6 eV, and this peak is
environment. The combined presence of copper and oxygen in the expected because of existence of advantageous carbon on sample
treated samples and change in color to the reddish brown indicate
the formation of copper oxides.10 For better confirmation of copper
oxide formation, XRD is not carried out because the samples are of
fabric and not easily possible to detect phases. However, as in our pre-
vious report, under identical conditions, we confirmed that copper
oxide is developed both inside and outside the cathodic cage.23
For the better reliability and to check the uniformity of processed
samples, the EDS spectra are recorded at multiple locations and aver-
age of several recordings is reported. The processed samples depict
the presence of copper as well as oxygen elements, and highest value
of copper is found while treating samples with 12‐mm‐thick cathodic
cage lid. This fact is probably due to change in length‐to‐diameter ratio
of cathodic cage lid, which can be explained by considering several fac-
tors: when the thickness of lid increases, the distance of samples from
lid top surface is changed from 190 to 168 mm, which may contribute
to enhanced deposition of copper sputtered from cathodic cage. This
result is well supported by the results of Nishimoto et al,25 and they
reported an increase in deposition rate with decrease in distance of
cathodic cage lid to sample surface (inside the cathodic cage, but it is
also valid for outside). Also, in our previous report,26 we found the
improvement in surface deposition with the reduction of distance
between samples and wall of cathodic cage. Also, we reported27,28
the influence of cathodic cage size and thus distance of samples
cathodic cage wall and found an improvement in surface deposition
by combined effect of decrease in distance and enhanced current den-
sity. Although, from above reports, the improvement in copper deposi-
tion is contributed by decrease in distance from lid to samples surface,
but we expect that its contribution is not so significant because, in this
range of distance variation,27,28 contribution of sample cathodic cage
was not dominant. In this regard, the current, voltage, and power are
also measured as a function of lid thickness under such condition
when hollow cathode effect occurs and is plotted in Figure 4. The cur-
rent is found to be increased and voltage decreased with increase in
thickness of cathodic cage lid, and it is an indication of increased sec-
ondary electron emission from lid (which is due to increase in required
area, ie, the thickness of holes in lid). It is observed that the trend of
power variation with lid thickness is in accordance with the deposition
efficiency on the samples. Thus, it suggests that length‐to‐distance
ratio of 1.5 (ie, 12‐mm thickness of lid) is best working for the deposi-
tion of cathodic cage material, and this fact is also observed for depo-
sition on glass samples.23
FIGURE 5 X‐ray photoelectron spectrum (XPS) of polyamide
As the fabric samples are temperature sensitive, thus very‐high‐ samples treated by various thickness of cathodic cage lid [Colour
resolution images are not possible, and thus, the size of particles figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
FERNADES ET AL. 5

is fitted by using Gaussian fitting and resolved into three peaks assisted
with typical curve fitting using CASA XPS software, as depicted in
Figure 7. Among these resolved peaks, the intense peak is ascribed to
O2− ions bonded with Cu2+ to form copper oxide, while remaining two
peaks are credited to oxygen adsorbed at the surface of CuO
nanostructure.
The variation of copper‐oxygen ratio (Cu/O) as a function of the
thickness of cathodic cage lid is plotted in Figure 8. It shows that the
highest ratio can be obtained while treating the samples using 12‐
mm‐thick lid, ie, length‐to‐distance ratio of 1.5. Therefore, all results
are in good agreement and suggest that length‐to‐distance ratio of
1.5 is more suitable for copper oxide nanostructure deposition on
polyamide and polyester samples.
The mechanism of copper oxide synthesis using CCPD can be clar-
ified by a well‐known mechanism of cathodic cage system, as

FIGURE 7 X‐ray photoelectron spectrum (XPS) of polyester sample

with 12‐mm‐thick cathodic cage lid, where O 1s core level is
deconvoluated using symmetric Gaussian function [Colour figure can
be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

FIGURE 6 X‐ray photoelectron spectrum (XPS) of polymer samples

treated by various thickness of cathodic cage lid [Colour figure can
be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

surface by disclosure in atmosphere.11 The processed samples depict

the presence of Cu 2p3/2 and Cu 2p1/2 peaks occurring at 933.65 and
953.5 eV, with a splitting between peaks around 19.9 eV. The occur-
rence of intense satellite peaks of each spin‐orbit interaction in the
regions having high energy endorses the existence of Cu2+ chemical
FIGURE 8 Variation of copper/oxygen ratio for treated polyester
state, which is a clear sign of copper oxide formation.11 The core‐level and polyamide samples with thickness of cathodic cage lid [Colour
spectra of O 1s state (for polyester sample treated by 12‐mm‐thick lid) figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
6 FERNADES
described in several reports.24,29,30 The cathodic cage being at higher
cathodic potential has intense ions bombardment (argon ions), which
results sputtering of cathodic cage material (here, we used copper
cage, so sputtered material is copper) and it is admixing in the plasma
environment. In the next step, sputtered material reacts with the oxy-
gen gas and deposited on the sample surface in the form of copper
oxide. The formation of copper oxide at low temperature (samples
are outside the cage, so temperature is low) can be justified from liter-
ature,31
in which it is explained by thermodynamic data. Su et al
described that the sputtered copper can be oxidized instantaneously
with oxygen at room temperature, as follows:
1
2Cu þ O2 ðgÞ→Cu2 O
2
1
Cu þ O2 ðgÞ→CuO
2 2009;3:272‐278.
1 1
Cu2 O þ O2 ðgÞ→CuO
2 4
This mechanism clearly supports the synthesis of copper oxide
using CCPD. Although CCPD system is well known for the surface
modification of metallic substrates, in this novel study, copper oxide
is successfully synthesized on polyester and polyamide samples.
4 | C ON C LU S I O NS A N D F I NA L REM A RK S
In this study, an attempt is made to synthesize the copper oxide on
fabric samples including polyamide and polyester using a novel tech-
nique of CCPD. The attainments in this study are summarized as
follows:
1. CCPD technique, widely used in literature for processing of metals,
can be used for effective processing of fabrics.
2. Copper oxide is synthesized on polyester and polyamide fabrics,
with comparatively less processing time and low cost over conven-
tional methodologies.
3. SEM results show the uniform deposition of nanoparticles on the
surface, and EDS analysis confirms the presence of copper and
oxygen elements along with carbon.
4. The effect of cathodic cage lid thickness depicts that best process-
ing efficiency can be attained while using length‐to‐diameter ratio
of 1.5, ie, while using the lid of 12‐mm thickness in this study.
5. The XPS results confirm the presence of Cu2+ and O2− ions on the
treated surfaces, and thus, it supports the formation of copper
oxide.
Therefore, copper oxide synthesis on fabric samples by CCPD is
proven to be an alternative technique with better efficiency and
cost‐effectiveness. This system does not require any use of chemicals,
and thus, it is environment‐friendly. The system used here is already
found to be industrially well matched; thus, the results of this study
ET AL.
are predicted to gain wide attention on wide‐scale applications, such
as in garments or hospitals.
ACKNOWL EDGEMENTS
The authors want to express their gratitude to Departamento de
Materiais—DEMAT, Laboratório de Materiais Multifuncionais,
Experimentação Numérica da Escola de Ciências e Tecnologia‐sECT
da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte—UFRN, and Grupo
31 de Crescimento de Cristais e Materiais Cerâmicos da USP‐São Carlos.
ORCI D
Muhammad Naeem https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9657-513X
(1)
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How to cite this article: Fernades F, Filho ER, Souza I, et al.
Novel synthesis of copper oxide on fabric samples by cathodic
cage plasma deposition. Polym Adv Technol. 2019;1–7.
https://doi.org/10.1002/pat.4792