Drop-on-demand inkjet printing, familiar to most of us from small home and office printers, is taking an increasing role in printing for the broader commercial and industrial market. Inkjet printing has made serious inroads into the market for printing banners and signs of all sorts. Wide-format and super wide-format printing is now the norm and has, to an increasing degree, superseded analog printing as the method of choice for printing large format and point-of-purchase signage. Overall, inkjet printing has now taken over 30 percent of the general sign and banner market. One area of printing that holds promise for future growth is that of packaging and labels. Many forms of commercial printing, although a huge market today, are threatened on multiple fronts from various forms of electronic media. Printing and decoration for packaging, on the other hand, is expected to increase in volume in the foreseeable future. In spite of this great promise, penetration of digital printing, in general, and inkjet printing, in particular, into packaging and label printing is still in the low single digits. This article will focus on the label market as an example of printing for packaging. Printing for packaging is a much broader and diverse subject than just labels, but many of the conclusions that follow can be extrapolated to the broader packaging market. Toner-based methods, both wet and dry, have been at the vanguard of penetrating the label market. Today, inkjet is slowly gaining market share. Inkjet has great potential because there is more flexibility in the type and characteristics of fluids that can be applied from an inkjet head. While there are many possible explanations for the relatively low penetration of digital printing into this market, this article will concentrate on the technical challenges involved in reliably printing labels of acceptable quality with inkjet printing. Only now is the inkjet printing industry overcoming these challenges.

In this study, the surfaces of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) films were treated with a helium-water vapor plasma at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. Surface changes related to hydrophilicity, chemical funtionalization, surface energy, and adhesive strength after plasma treatment were investigated using water contact angle (WCA) measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and mechanical T-peel tests. Results indicate increased surface energy accompanied with enhanced hydrophilicity. WCA decreased by 36, 50, and 16% for UHMWPE, PET, and PTFE, respectively, after only 0.4 s treatment. For UHMWPE, it is shown that the surface functionalization can be tailored depending on the plasma exposure time. Aging studies performed for these three polymers show the stability of the surface groups as indicated by a small increase in WCA values of plasma treated samples which can be attributed to cross-linking of surface and subsurface polymer chains. XPS analysis of the surfaces show increased oxygen content via the formation of polar, hydroxyl-based functional groups. Furthermore, major changes in the polymer structure of PET are observed, possibly due to the opening of the aromatic rings caused by the plasma energetic species. T-peel test results show an 8, 7.5, and 400-fold increase in peel strength for UHMWPE, PET, and PTFE, respectively. Most importantly, it is shown that water-vapor based plasmas can be a promising, “green,” inexpensive route to promote the surface activation of polymers.

The wetting and adhesion characteristics of 20 different surfaces have been studied systematically by both static water contact angle (θ) and dynamic contact angle measurement techniques: sliding angle (α) and advancing (θ_A) and receding (θ_R) contact angles. These surfaces cover surfaces of all traits, from smooth and flat to rough and artificially textured. Fourteen of the surfaces are flat, and they range from molded plastic sheets to solution coated polymer films to chemical vapor deposition polymerized polymer films and to self-assembled monolayers on Si wafers. The rest of the surfaces include 4 fluorosilane coated textured Si wafer surfaces and two natural surfaces derived from the front and back side of the rose petal. Static water contact angle data suggest that these surfaces vary from hydrophilic with θ at ∼71° to superhydrophobic with θ exceeding 150°. Plots of θ of these surfaces versus α, (cos θ_R – cos θ_A), and the contact angle hysteresis (θ_A – θ_R) all yield scattered plots, indicating that there is little correlation between θ and α, (cos θ_R – cos θ_A) and (θ_A – θ_R). Since the later three parameters have been mentioned to relate to adhesion semiempirically between a liquid droplet and the contacting surface, the present work demonstrates with generality that contact angle indeed does not relate to adhesion. This is consistent with a known but not well recognized fact in the literature. In this work, we study both the wetting and adhesion forces between water and these 20 surfaces on a microelectromechanical balance (tensiometer). When the water drop first touches the surface, the attractive force during this wetting step was measured as the “snap-in” force. The adhesion force between the water drop and the surface was measured as the “pull-off” force when the water drop separates (retracts) from the surface. The snap-in force is shown to decrease monotonously as θ_A decreases and becomes zero when θ_A is >150°. The very good correlation is not unexpected due to the similarity between the wetting and the “snap-in” process. The analysis of the pull-off force data is slightly more complicated, and we found that the quality of the water–surface separation depends on the surface “adhesion”. For surfaces that show strong adhesion with water, there is always a small drop of water left behind after the water droplet is pulled off from the surface. Despite this complication, we plot the pull-off force versus α, (cos θ_R – cos θ_A) and (θ_A – θ_R), and found very little correlation. On the other hand, the pull-off force is found to correlate well to the receding contact angle θ_R. Specifically, pull-off force decreases monotonically as θ_R increases, suggesting that θ_R is a good measure of surface adhesion. Very interestingly, we also observe a qualitative correlation between θ_R and the quality of the pull-off. The pull-off was found to be clean, free of water residue after pull-off, when θ_R is >∼90° and vice versa. The implications of this work toward surface contact angle measurements and print surface design are discussed.

After the impact of the great review of M. Strobel and C. S. Lyons on contact angle measurements, we discuss some claims of the authors. The Wilhelmy method is not generally “the best technique for measuring the contact angle hysteresis” as the authors claimed. Otherwise, we think that, even though equilibrium contact angle is an “unattainable” angle, the most-stable contact angle obtained from the system relaxation is experimentally accessible. The most-stable contact angle is energetically significant for evaluating quantitatively the surface energy value of rough, chemically homogeneous surfaces from the Wenzel equation, and the average surface energy of smooth, chemically heterogeneous surfaces from the Cassie equation. The most-stable contact angle, the advancing contact angle and the receding contact angles enable the thermodynamic description of the range of contact angle hysteresis and the distribution of metastable system configurations.

An attempt was made to study the effect of plasma surface activation on the adhesion of UV-curable sol-gel coatings on polycarbonate (PC) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) substrates. The sol was synthesized by the hydrolysis and condensation of a UV-curable silane in combination with Zr-n-propoxide. Coatings deposited by dip coating were cured using UV-radiation followed by thermal curing between 80 °C and 130 °C. The effect of plasma surface treatment on the wettability of the polymer surface prior to coating deposition was followed up by measuring the water contact angle. The water contact angle on the surface of as-cleaned substrates was 80° ± 2° and that after plasma treatment was 43° ± 1° and 50° ± 2° for PC and PMMA respectively. Adhesion as well as mechanical properties like scratch resistance and taber abrasion resistance were evaluated for coatings deposited over plasma treated and untreated surfaces.

A uniform and smooth transfer of stresses across the polymer matrix/fiber interface is enhanced when adhesion between the matrix and fiber surface is optimized. In the absence of covalent bonds matching the Hansen solubility (cohesion) parameters (HSP) of the fiber surface with the HSP of a matrix polymer assures maximum physical adhesion to transfer loads uniformly. Plasma treatment of ultra-high-molecular-weight (UHMWPE) fibers is shown to significantly increase the amount of oxygen in the surface. There are two distinct types of surfaces in both the plasma treated and the untreated UHMWPE fibers. One type is typical of polyethylene (PE) polymers while the other is characteristic of the oxygenated surface at much higher values of HSP. The oxygenated surface of the plasma treated fibers has the HSP δ_D, δ_P, and δ_H equal to 16.5, 15.3, and 8.2, compared to the pure PE surface with HSP at 18.0, 1.2, and 1.4, all in MPa^½. The dispersion parameter has been lowered somewhat by the plasma treatment, while the polar and parameters are much higher. The HSP methodology predicts enhanced adhesion is possible by skillful use of anhydride and nitrile functional groups in matrix or tie polymers to promote compatibility in the system.

Semi-crystalline polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is of interest for providing hermetic sealing of implantable medical devices. Self bonding or autohesion is achieved by mild temperature and pressure treatment and is potentially useful to form joints in the encapsulation of active medical implants. The surfaces of PEEK films were treated in a radio-frequency (RF) plasma containing one of the gases Ar, N₂ and O₂, to achieve surface activation. The bond strength developed over the interface of PEEK films was evaluated by lap-shear testing. The effects of plasma conditions on the surface morphology, composition, and properties were determined using the profilometer, contact angle measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results obtained show that plasma treatment of the PEEK films enhances their bonding strength, with the Ar treated films exhibiting the highest bond strength and nitrogen the lowest. Bond strength was shown to correlate positively with total oxygen content, with C–O group concentration and with the polar component of surface energy. Bond strength correlated negatively with CO group concentration.

Contact angles are used to solve research and manufacturing problems in an industrial environment. Contact angle measurements are scientific, readily acquired using relatively low-cost instruments and simple procedures, are agreeable for use in environments from academic research laboratories to industrial manufacturing facilities, and are an extremely powerful method for characterizing surfaces. The measurement of dynamic contact angles is rate-dependent at high capillary numbers. Water is a preferred probe liquid for contact angle measurements not only because of the importance of aqueous systems in science and industry, but also because water has the highest surface tension of any commonly available probe liquid and therefore has measurable contact angles on most polymeric materials. Most theories of solid surface energy have a basis in Young's equation, which employs the equilibrium contact angle. If surface energy or surface energy component calculations are made, both the advancing and the receding contact angle data should be used in those calculations.

In this commentary we discuss the assay by M. Strobel and C. S. Lyons on contact angle measurements, critical and popular topic in surface/plasma science community. We agree with stressing the importance of dynamic contact angle measurements (i.e. the evaluation of both advancing and receding). However, we make some remarks about the meaning of angle hysteresis with particular regard to the concepts of roughness and chemical heterogeneity, on the basis of our experience in hydrophobic and super-hydrophobic surfaces. Further, we describe our different point of view in the dispute between Wilhelmy balance and sessile drop methods.

The potential of contact angle measurements (CAM) as an analytical tool to characterize surface treatments or modifications is often not fully exploited. Agreeing with Strobel and Lyons, comparing contact angles is often much more reasonable than comparing deduced data like surface energies, because the latter are based on models, in turn involving the influence and knowledge of intermolecular forces at the respective interfaces. For a comprehensive picture, the measurement of contact angles itself has to be considered together with the appropriate model and the available techniques to carry out CAM. An appropriate measurement procedure will be given and a brief discussion of some models to derive free surface energy from CAM.

The surface of polypropylene (PP) films was activated by RF plasma method with the use different gases: argon, air, water vapor, and acetic acid vapor. Plasma was diagnosed based on spectra emitted by gas plasma using the method of optical emission spectroscopy. The effectiveness of these processing gases during plasma treatment was analyzed. The effects of PP activation were assessed with the use of IR-ATR absorption spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and the analysis of the surface free energy components based on liquid contact angle. The activation of PP surface by plasma treatment resulted in the increased energy of PP surface layer to the extent being dependent on the type of processing gases and in the formation of new chemical groups on it. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/app.34486

The surface of medical devices is of great importance for biocompatibility. Surface properties can evolve with a material treatment, time, and storage conditions. In this work, poly(urethane) catheters sterilised by cold nitrogen plasma treatment, were subjected to air and temperature aging in order to evaluate the influence of humidity and temperature on surface recovery. The surface of catheters was analysed by contact angle measurements and XPS. Faster surface changes upon aging were observed at high temperature (45 °C) and relative humidity (90%). For the commercial poly(urethane) catheters analysed in this work, the importance of the nature and polymorphism of additives added to the polymer (lubricant, antioxidant) in the recovery process was demonstrated. Indeed, DSC and TSC showed that additive transitions (relaxation, melting…) could govern the aging process.

Measurements of the surface tension (γ_LV) and advancing contact angle () on poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) were carried out for aqueous solutions of sodium decyl sulfate (SDS) and p-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl)phenoxypoly(ethylene glycol) (TX100) and their mixtures. The results obtained indicate that the values of the surface tension and contact angles of solutions of surfactants on PTFE and PMMA surfaces depend on the concentration and composition of the surfactant mixtures. Calculations based on the Lucassen-Reynders equation indicate that for single surfactants and their mixtures at a given concentration in the bulk phase the values of surface excess concentration of surfactants at water–air and PTFE–water interfaces are nearly the same, so the adsorption of the surfactants at water–air and PTFE–water interfaces should also be the same. However, the adsorption of TX100 and its mixtures with SDS at water–air interface is higher than that at PMMA–water interface, which is confirmed by the ratio of absolute values of molecular interaction parameters at these interfaces calculated on the basis of Rosen approach. If we take into account the hydration of the poly(ethylene oxide) chains of TX100 and acid and base parameters of the surface tension of water it appears that the PMMA surface is covered by the 'pure' water molecules from the solution or molecules connected with the chain of nonionic surfactant. On the other hand, the lack of SDS molecules at the PMMA–water interface may result from the formations of its micelles which are connected with the TX100 chain.

In order to characterize a solid surface, the commonly used approach is to measure the advancing and receding contact angles, i.e., the contact angle hysteresis. However, often an estimate of the average wettability of the solid–liquid system is required, which involves both the dry and wetted states of the surface. In this work, we measured advancing and receding contact angles on six polymer surfaces (polystyrene, poly(ethylene terephthalate), poly(methyl methacrylate), polycarbonate, unplasticized poly(vinyl chloride), and poly(tetrafluoroethylene)) with water, ethylene glycol and formamide using the sessile drop and captive bubble methods. We observed a general disagreement between these two methods in the advancing and receding contact angles values and the average contact angle determined separately by each method, although the contact angle hysteresis range mostly agreed. Surface mobility, swelling or liquid penetration might explain this behaviour. However, we found that the 'cross' averages of the advancing and receding angles coincided. This finding suggests that the cross-averaged angle might be a meaningful contact angle for polymer–liquid systems. Hence, we recommend using both the sessile drop and captive bubble methods.

Interactions of cellulose fiber surfaces with water and other liquids depend on surface morphology as well as intrinsic material properties. Smooth nanocrystalline cellulose (I) films can be used as models to study surface phenomena, where the effects of surface morphology and roughness are minimized. Contact angle measurements are particularly sensitive to surface roughness. In this work, we measured the advancing and receding contact angles for water on thin model cellulose (I) and regenerated cellulose (II) films. The advancing and receding contact angles on model cellulose (I) surfaces were lower than on cellulose (II) surfaces, and the contact angle hysteresis was also lower for the smooth model cellulose (I) surfaces prepared from nanocrystal suspensions. The surface free energy was evaluated for the various cellulose surfaces from contact angle measurements.

Plasma treatment and vacuum Al deposition on films from biaxially oriented polypropylene is a multistep large scale industrial process, mainly ending up in packaging film laminates. As atmospheric plasma treatment processes suffer from lack of reproducibility, low pressure plasma treatment processes that can be operated in-line with the metal deposition are being developed. Process development is difficult, because the final packaging film laminate has to deliver optimum properties of adhesion as well as of the barrier against oxygen and water vapor permeation. As a typical production run involves tens of thousands to up to one hundred thousand square meters of film, experiments on an industrial scale are expensive, so smaller scale experimental processes are needed, which so far do not match well enough with industrial process characteristics. Moreover, bonding mechanisms between the treated substrate film and the deposited Al layer are not sufficiently understood. This paper describes the sequence in development and optimization of substrate films and plasma treatment that has been performed on an experimental as well as on an industrial scale. A sufficient correlation between experimental and industrial scales was achieved, which helps to perform development and optimization on a small scale before scaling up to industrial processes. However, improvement is still needed both in fundamental understanding of the aluminum–polypropylene interface as well as in experimental equipment and methodology.

The poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, film was exposed to atmospheric pressure plasma under various plasma processing parameters. The wettability of the PET film immediately after the exposure and after storage in air, which was determined by the sessile drop method, was strongly dependent on the plasma processing parameters. The contact angle hysteresis on the plasma-exposed PET film was examined by the Wilhelmy method. It was found that the hydrophobic recovery of the PET surface on storage after the plasma exposure was observed only for the advancing contact angle and that the receding angle remained almost the same. These experimental findings were explained on the basis of the calculation by Johnson and Dettre for the advancing and receding contact angles on model heterogeneous surfaces.

A basic and affordable experimental apparatus is described that measures the static contact angle of a liquid drop in contact with a solid. The image of the drop is made with a simple digital camera by taking a picture that is magnified by an optical lens. The profile of the drop is then processed with ImageJ free software. The ImageJ contact angle plugin detects the edge of the drop and fits its profile to a circle or an ellipse. The tangent to the triple line contact is calculated and drawn by the ImageJ software, thus, returning the value of the contact angle with acute precision on the measurement.

Surface layer of com. polylactide (PLA) was modified with corona discharges and studied for contact angle (H2O, CH2J2) and the geometric structure (at. force microscopy). The surface free energy was caled, by using Owens-Wendt equation. The treatment resulted in a decrease in the contact angle and an Increase in the surface free energy of the PLA film.