Production of biologically inert Teflon thin layers on the surface of allergenic metal objects by pulsed laser deposition technology

Allergic-type diseases are current nowadays, and they are frequently caused by certain metals. We demonstrated that the metal objects can be covered by Teflon protective thin layers using a pulsed laser deposition procedure. An ArF excimer laser beam was focused onto the surface of pressed PTFE powder pellets; the applied fluences were 7.5–7.7 J/cm². Teflon films were deposited on fourteen-carat gold, silver and titanium plates. The number of ablating pulses was 10000. Post-annealing of the films was carried out in atmospheric air at oven temperatures between 320 and 500 °C. The thickness of the thin layers was around 5 μm. The prepared films were granular without heat treatment or after annealing at a temperature below 340 °C. At 360 °C a crystalline, contiguous, smooth, very compact and pinhole-free thin layer was produced; a melted and re-solidified morphology was observed above 420 °C. The adhesion strength between the Teflon films and the metal substrates was determined. This could exceed 1–4 MPa depending on the treatment temperature. It was proved that the prepared Teflon layers can be suitable for prevention of contact between the human body and allergen metals and so for avoidance of metal allergy. Received: 12 June 2002 / Accepted: 13 June 2002 / Published online: 4 November 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. E-mail: bhopp@physx.u-szeged.hu     

Wrong gas/liquid partition data by gas chromatography

In a paper published in 1992 [K.S. Reddy, J.-Cl. Dutoit, E.sz. Kováts, Pair-wise interactions by gas chromatography. I. Interaction free enthalpies of solutes with non-associated primary alcohol groups, J. Chromatogr. 609 (1992) 229] retention indices and standard chemical potential differences (SPOT-s) are given for about 160 solutes on a liquid branched paraffin hydrocarbon of the carbon number, z = 78. For the temperature dependence of the SPOT-s the proposal of Kirchhoff was accepted i.e. that at higher temperatures the molar heat capacity difference of the solute between the gas phase and the solution is nearly constant in a broad temperature range. The data were determined under conditions where the effect of adsorption could be neglected. By comparing the published data with those determined on another branched paraffin of the carbon number, z = 87 [F. Riedo, D. Fritz, G. Tarján, E.sz. Kováts, A tailor-made C87 hydrocarbon as a possible non-polar standard stationary phase for gas chromatography, J. Chromatogr. 126 (1976) 63] it is shown that the reported thermodynamic constants of solutes determined experimentally at higher temperatures (the group "H") are wrong on C78. In the present paper, the method of correction and the resulting corrected data are given. In later papers retention data are given on eight polar derivatives of the hydrocarbon C78 relative to those measured on the nonpolar standard [R. Cloux, G. Défayes, K. Fóti, J.-Cl. Dutoit, E.sz. Kováts, Pair-wise interactions by gas chromatography. III. Synthesis of isosteric stationary phases for gas chromatography, Synthesis (1993) 909; G. Défayes, K.S. Reddy, A. Dallos, E.sz. Kováts, Pair-wise interactions by gas chromatography. V. Interaction free enthalpies of solutes with primary chloro- and bromo-alkanes, J. Chromatogr. A 699 (1995) 131; K.S. Reddy, E.sz. Kováts, Pair-wise interactions by gas chromatography. II. Sociation free enthalpies of some hydrogen bonding solutes with non-associated primary alcohol groups, Chromatographia 34 (1992) 249; K.S. Reddy, R. Cloux, E.sz. Kováts, Pair-wise interactions by gas chromatography. IV. Interaction free enthalpies of solutes with trifluoromethyl-substituted alkanes, J. Chromatogr. A 673 (1994) 181; K.S. Reddy, R. Cloux, E.sz. Kováts, Pair-wise interactions by gas chromatography. VI. Interaction free enthalpies of solutes with primary methoxyalkane, cyanoalkane and alkanethiol groups, J. Chromatogr. A 704 (1995) 387; A. Dallos, A. Sisak, Z. Kulcsár, E.sz. Kováts, Pair-wise interactions by gas chromatography. VII. Interaction free enthalpies of solutes with secondary alcohol groups, J. Chromatogr. A 904 (2000) 211]. Obviously, the same data which are wrong in the nonpolar standard are also wrong in these solvents. The corrected data in the polar solvents are given in supplementary tables.     

Expansion velocities of 0.5 ps KrF excimer laser induced plasma by Doppler-shift analysis of pump and probe measurements

High gradient laser plasma is formed by focused KrF laser pulses (248.3 nm, 450 fs, 10¹³ W/cm²) on liquids (water, styrene) and solids (silicon, aluminum, and polyimide). The hydrodynamic expansion of the plasma was studied by measuring the blue Doppler-shift of reflected probe pulses which was produced by a delayed dye laser (496.6 nm, 450 fs). The Doppler-shift corresponds to the velocity of the reflecting surface of the plasma which is defined by the critical electron density. Expansion is investigated as a function of delay time and laser intensity. The reflecting surface of the plasma accelerates over 1–2 ps after the onset of the ablating laser pulse. With increasing intensity up to 2×10¹³ W/cm² the maximum average velocities are monotonously increasing up to 1–2×10⁵ m/s. PACS 52.38.Kd; 52.50.Jm, 52.70.Kz     

Influence on the laser induced backside dry etching of thickness and material of the absorber, laser spot size and multipulse irradiation

Laser induced backside dry etching method (LIBDE) was developed - analogously to the well-known laser induced backside wet etching (LIBWE) technique - for the micromachining of transparent materials. In this procedure, the absorbing liquid applied during LIBWE was replaced with solid metal layers. Fused silica plates were used as transparent targets. These were coated with 15-120 nm thick layers of different metals (silver, aluminium and copper). The absorbing films were irradiated by a nanosecond KrF excimer laser beam through the quartz plate. The applied fluence was varied in the 150-2000 mJ/cm² range, while the irradiated area was between 0.35 and 3.6 mm². At fluences above the threshold values, it was found that the metal layers were removed from the irradiated spots and the fused silica was etched at the same time. In our experiments, we investigated the dependence of the main parameters (etch rate and threshold) of LIBDE on the absorption of the different metal layers (silver, copper, aluminium), on the size of the irradiated area, on the film thickness and on the number of processing laser pulses.