Surface Energy and Adhesive Properties of Polyamide 12 Modified by Barrier and Radio-Frequency Discharge Plasma

Summary. The polyamide 12 foil with sufficient surface and adhesive properties to other substrates can be prepared by discharge plasma modification. For improvement of bonding and printing of polymer a surface barrier discharge plasma in N₂ and O₂ as well as a radio-frequency discharge plasma in air has been studied. A significant increase in surface energy of the polymer as well as in strength of adhesive joint to more polar polymer was found. The chemical changes of PA 12 modified by plasma were analyzed using fourier transform infra red – attenuated total reflection (FTIR–ATR) spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. The observed changes of surface properties of the polymer due to aging were not important.     

Surface Energy and Adhesive Properties of Polyamide 12 Modified by Barrier and Radio-Frequency Discharge Plasma

The polyamide 12 foil with sufficient surface and adhesive properties to other substrates can be prepared by discharge plasma modification. For improvement of bonding and printing of polymer a surface barrier discharge plasma in N₂ and O₂ as well as a radio-frequency discharge plasma in air has been studied. A significant increase in surface energy of the polymer as well as in strength of adhesive joint to more polar polymer was found. The chemical changes of PA 12 modified by plasma were analyzed using fourier transform infra red – attenuated total reflection (FTIR–ATR) spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. The observed changes of surface properties of the polymer due to aging were not important.     

Multitechnique surface spectroscopic studies of plasma modified polymers III. H2O and O2/H2O plasma modified poly(methyl methacrylate)s

The surfaces of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) films modified by O₂H₂O and H₂O radio-frequency glow discharge plasmas were studied using electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA or XPS), low energy ion scattering (LEISS or ISS), Fourier transform IR spectroscopy (FTIR) with attenuated total reflectance (ATR) sampling, and critical surface energy from contact angle measurements. The extent and nature of modification with respect to promotion of a hydrophilic surface compared to the hydrophobic surface of the unmodified PMMA has been probed. Results show drastic decreases in C/O ratio at the near surface, which increases to that of the unmodified PMMA as deeper cross sections are analyzed. In addition peak fitting of ESCA data correlated with FTIR functional group information allows for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the resulting bonding and structure of the modified layer. From these results combined with the polarity and surface energy differences obtained from contact angle measurements, the structural changes are discussed with respect to plasma reaction mechanisms and differences in the structure of the modified polymer films.     

ToF‐SIMS multivariate characterization of surface modification of polymers by N2?H2 atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge

Time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF‐SIMS) is a powerful tool for the surface characterization of plasma‐modified surface. However, the SIMS fragmentation patterns of the resulting surface are quite complex and a full interpretation may be prohibitive. As a result, many studies are turning to multivariate statistical methods to simplify the interpretation. In this study, a principal component analysis (PCA) was used to obtain a more detailed interpretation of the surface modification of polymers by an atmospheric pressure plasma. The dataset was obtained from three polymers with different chemical compositions [namely, polyethylene, polyvinylidene fluoride, and poly(tetrafluoroethylene)], where each material was treated with an atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) in an atmosphere composed of different N₂/H₂ ratios. The results are discussed in terms of the suitability of ToF‐SIMS analysis combined with PCA for the discrimination between the three polymers and the possibility to create a predictive model that would describe the plasma surface modification, independent of the polymer substrate chemical composition. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Novel AC and DC Non-Thermal Plasma Sources for Cold Surface Treatment of Polymer Films and Fabrics at Atmospheric Pressure

Novel types of non-thermal plasma sources at atmospheric pressure based on multi-pin DC (direct current) diffusive glow discharge and AC (alternative current) streamer barrier corona have been elaborated and tested successfully for cold surface treatment of polymer films [polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET),] and polyester fabric. Results on physical properties ofdischarges mentioned and output energy characteristics of new plasma sources as well as data on after-treatment changes in wettability of films and fabrics are presented. The main goal of this study was to find out the experimental conditions for gas discharge and surface processing to achieve a remarkable wettability change for a short treatment time.     

Surface Behavior of Polyamide 6 Modified by Barrier Plasma in Oxygen and Nitrogen

Polyamide (PA) 6 was modified by diffuse coplanar surface barrier discharge (DCSBD) plasma in an atmosphere of nitrogen and oxygen. The surface roughness decrease of PA 6 was detected by AFM and nano-indentation after modification in DCSBD plasma. A significant increase in O/C and N/C ratios of plasma-modified PA 6 using XPS analysis was found. The results show the importance of introducing oxygenic polar functional groups on the polymeric surface in order to increase its surface energy during a short time of plasma activation. The modification of PA 6 by DCSBD oxygen plasma was more efficient than by nitrogen plasma.     

Adhesion Enhancement and Characterization of Plasma Polymerized 1,2-Dichloroethane on Polypropylene Surface

Polypropylene (PP) films were modified in 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) plasma. Surface energy measurement and rate of deposition showed two-step surface modification. First, incorporation of chloride ions on PP surface followed by deposition of cross-linked layer. DCE plasma modified PP films were subsequently compared with earlier reported work on carbontetrachloride (CCl₄) and chloroform (CHCl₃) plasma modification. Modified films were characterized using ATR-FTIR technique by monitoring the relative changes in intensities of C–H stretch vibrations. The nature of deposition on PP film was characterized using FTIR technique and solubility test. Peel strength measurements of DCE, CCl₄, and CHCl₃ plasma modified films showed improvement in bonding strength. Durability of plasma modified PP film was studied by calculating surface energy and peel strength of samples aged for two months.     

Water barrier characteristics of plasma polymers of perfluorocarbons

Perfluorocarbon monomers such as C₂F₄, C₂F₆, C₄F₁₀, and mixtures thereof with H₂, were subjected to plasma polymerization and deposited onto low-density polyethylene (LDPE) substrates. The effect of plasma conditions, surface characteristics, and surface dynamics of plasma polymers on their ability to improve the resistance to water vapor permeation was investigated. An optimum discharge energy density was found for a monomer which provided the greatest reduction water vapor permeability. Although all of the plasma polymers show higher hydrophobicity than polyethylene, the reduction in water vapor permeability is not uniquely related to water contact angle. The surface-dynamic stability of a plasma polymer surface was found to be the key factor in determining the barrier performance of the plasma polymer. The extent of change of surface-configuration after water immersion strongly correlated with the improvement in the water vapor permeation resistance. Plasma polymers with the higher surface-dynamic stability provided the better water barrier coating applied on LDPE films. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Adhesive behavior of UV pre‐treated polyolefins

The effect of surface modification of polyolefin, mainly isotactic polypropylene and low‐density polyethylene, by UV irradiation and phosphoryl chloride on its adhesive behavior was investigated. A non‐linear increase of the surface free energy, its polar component and strength of adhesive joint to more polar polymer was observed. The effect of modification of polyolefins was strongly depended on the intensity of the UV radiation. The obtained values of the strength of adhesive joints to polyvinyl acetate correspond with the measured level of hydrophilicity of modified polyolefin.     

Mechanisms for surface energy changes observed in plasma immersion ion implanted polyethylene: The roles of free radicals and oxygen-containing groups

Low density polyethylene (LDPE) was modified by plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) with nitrogen ions of 20 keV. Surface energy and structural transformations were observed during storage of the modified LDPE in air after PIII, by wettability measurements and FTIR-ATR spectra respectively. The appearance of oxygen-containing groups has some kinetic stages with characteristic times from hours to days. The surface energy values attained and comparison with the kinetics of oxidation reveal that the initial changes in the surface energy of LDPE are caused mainly by free radicals and to a lesser extent by oxygen-containing groups. The final surface energies observed after the process known as hydrophobic recovery and the surface energies stabilize are attributable to oxygen-containing groups. The modified surface is “living” and an investigation of the wettability, surface energy, unsaturated and oxygen-containing groups in the surface layer of ion beam modified polymers is incomplete if the kinetics of structural transformations after modification is not taken into account.     

Manipulating the surface properties of polyacrylamide with nitrogen plasma

Polyacrylamide (PAL) was physically adsorbed onto a hydroxylated silicon surface to form a uniform PAL film and the up-top PAL thin film was treated by nitrogen (N₂) plasma for surface modification. The atomic composition of the modified surface of the PAL film adsorbed on silicon substrate was analyzed with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The surface energy of PAL film was calculated from the data of contact angle of three-probe liquid. The FTIR results show an increase of peak intensity at 1214 cm⁻¹ (NH₂ stretch vibration) after the nitrogen plasma treatment, which confirms that the nitrogen was grafted to the PAL surface in the process of N₂-plasma treatment. The XPS results show that the ratio of relative intensity of N1s to O1s increases with increasing the plasma treatment time, which further affirms the formation of the amine groups on the PAL surface after the nitrogen plasma treatment. The surface tension increases with increasing the plasma grafting time. However, the surface energy decreases rapidly at the early stage when stored in air and approaches to an equilibrium value. It suggests that some physically-adsorbed ions and alkyl radicals on PAL surface can rapidly lose their activities. The increase of the surface tension of the plasma treated PLA films is due to the amine groups covalently grafted to PAL surface.     

Designing Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma Sources for Surface Engineering of Nanomaterials

Atmospheric-pressure plasma processing techniques emerge as efficient and convenient tools to engineer a variety of nanomaterials for advanced applications in nanoscience and nanotechnology. This work presents different methods, including using a quasi-sinusoidal high-voltage generator, a radio-frequency power supply, and a uni-polar pulse generator, to generate atmospheric-pressure plasmas in the jet or dielectric barrier discharge configurations. The applicability of the atmospheric-pressure plasma is exemplified by the surface modification of nanoparticles for polymeric nanocomposites. Dielectric measurements reveal that representative nanocomposites with plasma modified nanoparticles exhibit notably higher dielectric breakdown strength and a significantly extended lifetime.     

Deposition and wetting characteristics of polyelectrolyte multilayers on plasma-modified porous polyethylene

Hydrophilic and chemically reactive porous media were prepared by adsorbing functional polymers at the surface of sintered polyethylene membranes. Modification of the membrane was accomplished by first exposing the membrane to an oxygen glow discharge gas plasma to introduce an electrostatic charge at the membrane surfaces. Cationic polyelectrolyte polyethylenimine (PEI) was adsorbed from solution to the anionic-charged surface to form an adsorbed monolayer. The adsorption of a second anionic polyelectrolyte onto the PEI layer allows further modification of the membrane surface to form a polyelectrolyte-bilayer complex. The conformation and stability of the adsorbed monolayers and bilayers comprising the modified surface are probed as a function of the polymer structure, charge density, and solubility. Using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis, we demonstrate that the presence of the polyelectrolyte multilayers drastically increases the density and specificity of the functional groups at the surface, more than what can be achieved through the plasma modification alone. Also, using the wicking rate of deionized, distilled water through the porous membrane to gauge the interfacial energy of the modified surface, we show that the membrane wicking rate can be controlled by varying the chemistry of the adsorbing polyelectrolytes and, to a lesser extent, by adjusting the polarity or ionic strength of the polyelectrolyte solution.     

Molecular adsorption and the chemistry of plasma-deposited thin organic films: Deposition of oligomers of ethylene glycol

Weakly ionized, radio-frequency, glow-discharge plasmas formed from methyl ether or the vapors of a series of dimethyl oligo(ethylene glycol) precursors (general formula: H-(CH₂OCH₂)_n-H;n=1 to 4) were used to deposit organic thin films on polytetrafluoroethylene. X-ray photoelecton spectroscopy (XPS) and static secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) of the thin films were used to infer the importance of adsorption of molecular species from the plasma onto the surface of the growing, organic film during deposition. Films were prepared by plasma deposition of each precursor at similar deposition conditions (i.e., equal plasma power (W), precursor flow rate (F), and deposition duration), and at conditions such that the specific energy (energy/mass) of the discharge (assumed to be constrained byW/FM, whereM=molecular weight of the precursor) was constant. At constantW/FM conditions, two levels of plasma power (and, hence, twoFM levels) and three substrate temperatures were examined. By controlling the energy of the discharge (W/FM) and the substrate temperature, these experiments enabled the study of effects of the size and the vapor pressure of the precursor on the film chemistry. The atomic % of oxygen in the film surface, estimated by XPS, and the intensity of theC-O peak in the XPS C_ls spectra of the films, were used as indicators of the degree of incorporation of precursor moieties into the plasma-deposited films. Analysis of films by SIMS suggested that these two measures obtained from XPS were good indicators of the degree of retention in the deposited films of functional groups from the precursors. The XPS and SIMS data suggest that adsorption of intact precursor molecules or fragments of precursor molecules during deposition can have a significant effect on film chemistry. Plasma deposition of low vapor pressure precursors provides a convenient way of producing thin films with predictable chemistry and a high level of retention of functional groups from the precursor.     

Nanoporous WO3 from anodized RF sputtered tungsten thin films

We report the first electrochemical anodization of RF (radio-frequency) sputtered tungsten (W) thin films. High pressure sputtering was utilized to produce W films of low intrinsic stress with a high degree of adhesion to the transparent substrates. Structurally and uniformly porous tungsten trioxide (WO₃) films were obtained under optimised anodization conditions in fluoride ion-containing electrolyte. Crystalline WO₃ was obtained after annealing the films at 450 °C. SEM and XRD characterisation techniques were used to determine the surface morphology and crystal structure of the non-anodized and anodized films.     

Direct-current discharge treatment of polytetrafluoroethylene films

The effect of treatment in a low-pressure dc discharge on the surface properties of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) films modified at the anode and cathode was examined. It was found that the anode treatment of the films considerably improves the adhesive properties of the polymer and makes it possible to obtain substantially lower values of the contact angle and higher values of the work of adhesion and surface energy than in the case of other PTFE surface modification techniques. By means of IR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, it was shown that discharge treatment at the anode and cathode noticeably increases the amount of oxygen-containing groups on the surface of the films.     

微波等离子体对聚乙烯材料的表面改性

对高分子材料进行表面修饰,可以赋予材料表面新的物理和化学性能,提高材料的亲水性、粘结性、电镀和生物匹配性等．在表面改性方法中,新近发展的等离子体改性技术由于具有操作简单,工艺干法化,不影响材料本体结构和性能等优点而日益受到人们的重视［１,２］．微波等...     

Polyethylene surface enhancement by corona and chemical co-treatment

Corona and chemical treatment worked cooperatively for increasing and stabilizing the polyethylene film surface energy. Gentle and varied corona discharge treatment conditions were applied for each polyethylene film to reach 40?dynes/cm. A rather low blending amount of additive could stabilize the film surface energy obviously. Compared with neat PE film, of which the surface energy decreased to 36?dynes/cm at the 12th day, films blended with 1000?ppm A7-OH or PE-PEG_4k-PE showed stable surface energy (36–38?dynes/cm) over 150?days. The influence of industrial applied slipping agent was investigated as well. Morphological and chemical changes were studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The surface energy was determined by the dyne pens. Mechanism investigation of hydrophilization and hydrophobic recovery processes showed that proper crystallization behavior and enough CO groups on the film surface guarantee satisfactory stability of the surface energy.     

Surface modification of polymeric ultrafiltration membranes: III. Effect of plasma-chemical surface modification onto some characteristics of polyacrylonitrile ultrafiltration membranes

Plasma-chemical surface modification of polyacrilonitrile ultrafiltration membranes is presented here including surface pre-activation by treatment in cold plasma, obtained in dielectric barrier discharge at atmospheric pressure, and following chemical grafting of mono-functional polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains. The effect of such plasma-chemical modification onto the physico-chemical characteristics of the membrane surface as well as onto some basic working membrane characteristics such as productivity and selectivity was studied. XPS analysis was employed to control the chemical composition of the membrane surface. Contact angle measurement was used to characterize the hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance on the surface. Membrane structure was imaged by SEM observations.     

Surface roughness and hydrophilicity enhancement of polyolefin‐based membranes by three kinds of plasma methods

The introduction of antibacterial property, conductivity, wettability and antithrombogenicity into polyolefin‐based membranes has evoked much attention, which can be achieved by coating hydrophilic polymers. Therefore, it is necessary to modify the roughness and hydrophilicity of polyolefin‐based membranes to enhance the coating ability. In this paper, three kinds of plasma methods, including inductively coupled (ICP) plasma, radio frequency low pressure (RFP) plasma and atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma, were used to modify the surface of the polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polyester‐polypropylene (PET–PP) membranes. The surface roughness of the plasma‐modified PE, PP and PET–PP films was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). The polar functional groups of films were observed by energy dispersive spectrometer (EDX) and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Besides, the hydrophilicity of the plasma‐modified PE, PP and PET–PP films was evaluated by water contact angle measurement. It was found that the surface roughness and hydrophilicity of plasma‐modified PE, PP and PET–PP films increased with the generation of oxygen‐containing functional groups (i.e. C―O, and C?O). The PET–PP membranes were treated by RFP plasma at different processing powers and times. These results indicated that plasma is an effective way to modify films, and the treatment time and power of plasma had a certain accumulation effect on the membranes' hydrophilicity. As for the roughness and hydrophilicity, the DBD plasma modifies the PE film, which is the optimum way to get the ideal roughness and hydrophilicity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.