Influence of deposition time and precursor concentration on Ag-coated polyester fabric fabricated by plasma jet

Plasma printing techniques are being developed as a modern approach for depositing different functional materials. In this work, a nonthermal plasma jet working in atmospheric pressure was employed to print silver nanoparticles on flexible polyester fabric substrates. Atomized droplets of silver nitrate solution were exposed to plasma reducing them to silver nanoparticles, which were printed on the substrates in a controlled condition. X-ray diffraction results confirmed the deposition of face-center cubic nanoparticles on the substrates. Field-enhanced electron scanning microscopy images demonstrated that these nanoparticles have an almost spherical shape. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) responses of the coated substrates were investigated using a Raman marker of Rhodamine B. SERS performance for coated fabrics printed in various precursor concentrations and printing durations was investigated. The best performance corresponded to the fabric printed with a precursor of 24mM concentration and a printing time of 5min. Finally, Ag-printed fabrics were used to detect sulfite remainders of SO2-treated raisins showing promising potential in trace analysis.