Deposition of Ethylene-Hexafluoropropene Gradient Plasma-Copolymer Using Dielectric Barrier Discharge Reactor at Atmospheric Pressure: Application to Release Coatings on Pressure-Sensitive Tape

Plasma-polymerized hexafluoropropene (PPHFP) film deposited using a dielectric barrier discharge reactor at atmospheric pressure had low enough adhesive strength, 22.2 Nm^–1, for use as a release coating of pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes, but the bond strength between PPHFP film and a poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) substrate film was slightly weak: some part of the PPHFP deposits could be peeled from the PET substrate. Since the XPS results indicated that the bond strength between plasma-polymerized ethylene (PPE) film and PET substrate was strong enough, we tried to deposit PPE and plasma-polymerized ethylene - hexafluoropropene gradient plasma-copolymer between the PET substrate and the PPHFP film. This multi-layer film (MLF) had low enough adhesive strength, 36.6 Nm^–1, for use as the release coating; this value was near that of a control sample, Teflon sheet, 21.6 Nm^–1. Moreover, the bond strength between MLF and PET substrate became stronger than that between PPHFP and PET films.