American Journal of Materials Science and Technology (2013) 2: 1-9 doi:10.7726/jac.2013.1001 Research Article ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding e-mail: * Svetlana.Vihodceva@rtu.lv; ** skukle@latnet.lv Riga Technical University, Institute of Textile Materials Technology and Design, 14/24 Azenes street, LV- 1048, Riga, Latvia` 1 Low-pressure Air Plasma Influence on Cotton Textile Surface Morphology and Evaporated Cooper Coating Adhesion Svetlana Vihodceva * and Silvija Kukle ** Received 1 September 2012; Published online 27 October 2012 © The author(s) 2012. Published with open access at uscip.org Abstract The present study evaluates the influence of low-pressure air plasma before vacuum evaporation process on the cotton textile surface morphology, as well as evaporated copper coating adhesion. During the experiment, commercial cotton textile was functionalized with vacuum evaporation technique with or without low– pressure air plasma pre-treatment. Surface analysis of the cotton textile treated with low-pressure air plasma and evaporated copper was carried out using Scanning electron microscope. As shown in the experimental results, modification of cotton textile surface by applying low-pressure air plasma noticeably deteriorates adhesion of the evaporated copper coating to the cotton textile substrate. These can be explained as morphological changes of the cotton textile surface resulting from its modification with low-pressure air plasma. Scanning electron microscope micrographs reveal that low-pressure air plasma changes cotton textile surface morphology, i.e. the original cotton fibre surface generally becomes smoother, whereas some fibres become completely even. Keywords: Cotton Textile; Vacuum Evaporation Technology; Copper; Low-pressure Air Plasma; Adhesion 1. Introduction Textile materials have intrinsic properties that make them extremely valuable - they are flexible, light weight, strong, and soft. Because of this, they are excellent objects for imparting additional functionalities. The present paper describes the physical surface functionalization technique, i.e. vacuum evaporation, the evaluation of its application to natural textile coating, surface modification of natural textiles by applying low-pressure air plasma before textile coating with metals, as well as its influence on natural textile surface morphology, coating quality and adhesion. Vacuum evaporation is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process and one of the most commonly used methods for deposition of functional films on different substrates. The process allows vapor