The surface properties of fibers play critical roles in many applications such as wicking, soil resistance, adhesion, and bio-compatibility. This paper will discuss a new approach to surface modification in which polymers are grafted to naturally occurring graft-sites on the substrate. The surface modifying polymers contain a large number of new graft-sites, thus amplifying the potential graft-sites up to several thousand-fold. Subsequent modification of the graft-site amplifying polymer can be used to alter the surface charge, wettability, and dye-uptake. Critical features of this technology will be presented along with specific examples.
