J. Bio. & Env. Sci. 2014 602 | Haji et al. RESEARCH PAPER OPEN ACCESS Oxygen plasma as a pretreatment for environmentally friendly low temperature dyeing of wool natural fiber Aminoddin Haji * , Sayyed Sadroddin Qavamnia, Farhad Khosravi Bizhaem Textile Engineering Department, Birjand Branch, Islamic Azad University, Birjand, Iran Article published on July 27, 2014 Key words: Wool, Plasma, Dyeability, protein fiber, fastness. Abstract The aim of the study was to improve the dyeability of wool fiber with acid dye using a simple environmentally friendly pretreatment with oxygen plasma. Low pressure oxygen plasma treated wool yarns were characterized in terms of morphological, chemical and physical properties by SEM, FTIR and tensile strength measurements. The plasma treated samples were then dyed with an acid dye at different temperatures to compare the results with the untreated yarn. Color measurements were performed to compare the color strength of dyed samples. Fastness properties to washing and light were determined and compared. The plasma treated sample showed better dyeability at lower temperature with good fastness properties. * Corresponding Author: Aminoddin Haji Ahaji@iaubir.ac.ir Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences (JBES) ISSN: 2220-6663 (Print) 2222-3045 (Online) Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 602-607, 2014 http://www.innspub.net