Atomic-force microscopy was used to study structural chemical transformations on the surface of polyvinyl chloride films subjected to modification with compounds based on acrylic acid derivatives, with preliminary activation of the polymer surface with a corona discharge.

PTFE surface modifications have been realized using low-pressure RFGD, DBD and APGD in different atmospheres. Compared to the RFGD NH₃ plasma, the DBDs operating in H₂/N₂ lead to similar surface concentrations of amino groups and similar surface damage, but with a much higher specificity. Both APGDs in H₂/N₂ and NH₃/N₂ lead to lower concentrations of amino groups, but with similar specificity, and with lower surface damage than the RFGD treatment. A method is proposed to evaluate the efficiency of the different discharges for amine surface functionalization of PTFE, and it is concluded that the NH₃/N₂ APGD discharge is the one that give the best results for an effective surface treatment.

The experimental work reported here is devoted to the electrical study of two atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactors operating at high gas flow, conceived for surface treatment applications in spatial afterglow conditions. Both reactors are of coaxial geometry with the dielectric covering the active electrode, and are driven by a power generator delivering quasi-sinusoidal voltage waveforms in the 100–160 kHz range. The influence of the gas flow value and of the input power on the electrical operation of these systems is investigated. The comparative study performed here, by means of electrical measurements, reveals the influence of parameters such as geometrical dimensions and dielectric material used on the operation of the DBD. Power factor measurements are used to quantify the reactors' electrical performance. Optical diagnostics and kinetic modelling reveal a high chemical activity of the systems appropriate for the treatment of surfaces at atmospheric pressure.

A review is presented of the adhesion between polymers with particular emphasis on the processes that occur during failure at the level of polymer chains and how these processes relate to the macroscopic interface toughness. The same processes at the chain level, pull-out and scission, occur in both glassy polymers and elastomers, but the two classes of material are considered separately because their deformation processes around a crack tip are so different. Emphasis is placed on the work in which the author has participated and so the review makes no attempt to be an unbiased survey of the field.

In atmospheric pressure corona systems, the densities of electrons and ions determine the level of treatments. Here, the electron and ion densities in a corona plasma are evaluated for a DC positive-polarity wire discharge in dry air at atmospheric pressure, in the coaxial wire-cylinder geometry. We use a new numerical iterative approach to solve the coupled equations for the electric field and charge densities. The role of electron diffusivity is discussed and the influence of the charge distribution between electrodes on the electric field strength and on the plasma region is analyzed.

In the last few decades there has been an intense development in non-equilibrium (“cold”) plasma surface processing systems at atmospheric pressure. This new trend is stimulated mainly to decrease equipment costs by avoiding expensive pumping systems of conventional low-pressure plasma devices. This work summarizes physical and practical limitations where atmospheric plasmas cannot compete with low-pressure plasma and vice-versa. As the processing conditions for atmospheric plasma are rather different from reduced pressure systems in many cases these conditions may increase final equipment costs substantially. In this work we briefly review the main principles, advantages and drawbacks of atmospheric plasma for a better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the atmospheric plasma processing technology compared with conventional low-pressure plasma processing.

The performance of water-based acrylic flexographic inks laboratory printed on three different polymer-coated boards, namely coated with LDPE, OPP and PP, have been analysed and interpreted. The print quality and resistance properties obtained were related to varying ink formulation, in particular choice of emulsion polymer and presence of silicone additive in the vehicle, as well as varying levels of corona pretreatment. Print mottle and adhesion were worst on PP, while wet (water) rub and scratch resistance were worst on OPP and PE, respectively. However, these properties could be greatly influenced by the ink formulation, more so than corona level. In general addition of silicone improved scratch resistance, due to reduction in polar energy component of the print surface, but at the expense of worsened wet rub resistance. The emulsion polymer giving best resistance performance was generally found to give poorest optical properties, presumably due to more limited resolubility on press.

The capability of the PDMS based antiadhesion surface treatment strategy for high resolution unconventional lithography using hard or soft molds as representatives of imprint lithography or soft lithography was investigated. A thin film of PDMs was used as an antiadhesion release layer as PDMS has a fairly low surface energy and allows for the easy release of the mold from the patterned polymer on the substrates. The surface of the Si wafer was coated with a thin film of PDMS and using this PDMS-coated Si wafer as a hard mold line/space patterns were printed on the SU-8-coated PET substrates. Using this photoresist replica mold as a template for a soft mold the same PDMS-based coating strategy was applied. The imprinting of nanostructure-patterned mold onto a polymer composed of the same chemical as the mold led to pattern collapse during the release of the assembly because of the extremely strong adhesion between the mold and the polymer.

o optimize the effects of some discharge parameters on the surface wettability of polypropylene (PP) in atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge, a surface modification model is created based on statistical theory and orthogonal experimental design method. Contact angle measurements, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are used to study the changes in the surface wettability, surface topology and chemical compositions of the samples. The results show that surface wettability has been improved due to roughness increasing and the introduction of oxygen-containing functional groups. High-resolution XPS of C1s peak deconvolution indicates that the types and contents of oxidized functional groups are different in different discharge conditions or plasma energy. Moreover, the model analysis reveals that it has better predictive ability, and different discharge parameters has selective influence on water contact angle and surface O atom percentage.

Methods for treating polymeric substrates by placing the substrate in a gaseous mixture and subjecting it to a dielectric barrier electrical discharge. The gaseous mixture, which has a pressure around atmospheric, contains a carrier gas, a reducing gas and an oxidizing gas. The amount of the oxidizing gas in the gas mixture is between about 50 ppm and about 2000 ppm by volume, while the amount of the reducing gas in the gas mixture is between about 50 ppm and 30000 ppm by volume.

Low pressure glow discharge nitrogen plasma has been used to improve wettability in a low density polyethylene (LDPE) film for technical applications. The plasma treatment was carried out at a power of 300 W for different exposure times in the 1–20 min range. Wettability changes were analyzed using contact angle measurements. In addition to this, plasma-treated samples were subjected to an aging process to determine the durability of the plasma treatment. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy were used for surface characterization. The nitrogen plasma treatment considerably reduced contact angle values thus indicating an increase in surface wettability. The spectroscopic study showed presence of oxygen-based species on the plasma-treated samples, which are mainly generated after the plasma treatment as a consequence of air exposure. These polar species contribute to improve surface functionalization, but this is almost lost during aging due to the hydrophobic recovery process. Microscopic studies revealed that also small changes in surface roughness occurred during the plasma treatment but these are very low compared to surface activation. The results confirmed that low pressure nitrogen can be considered as an environmentally efficient process to improve wettability in low density polyethylene films. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 2390–2399, 2007

The wetting behavior of a series of polymer-coated papers has been studied. Different ways of determining the acid–base properties of the polymers are presented. The well-known van Oss–Chaudhury–Good (vOCG) bi–bi polar model is compared with more simplified mono–bi polar and mono–mono polar models. The effect of surface roughness on the wetting was also studied with atomic force microscopy. The overall wetting of each probe liquid was evaluated by calculating the work of adhesion to the polymer surfaces. It is shown that ethylene glycol and water may be considered as mono polar liquids, which simplifies the original vOCG-model. It is also shown that in most cases the surface energy values are in the same range when using both the complex bi–bi polar approach and the simpler mono–mono polar approach. The different polymers used are found to be of a predominating basic character.

Four ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) co-polymers with different vinyl acetate (VA) contents (9–20 wt%) were treated with corona discharge to improve their adhesion to polychloroprene (PCP) adhesive. The thermal properties of the EVAs decreased as their VA content increased, caused by a decrease in crystallinity. The elastic and viscous moduli of the EVAs decreased and the temperature and modulus at the cross-over between these moduli decreased with increasing VA content. Contact-angle measurements (water), infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to analyse the surface modifications produced in the corona-discharge-treated EVAs. The corona discharge treatment produced improved wettability and created roughness and oxygen moieties on the EVA surfaces. The higher the VA content and the higher the corona energy, the more significant modifications were produced on the EVA surface. The VA content also affected the T-peel strength values of treated EVA/polychloroprene + isocyanate adhesive joints, as the values increased with increasing VA content. Mixed failure modes (interfacial + cohesive failure in the EVA) were obtained in the adhesive joints produced with corona discharge treated EVAs containing more than 9 wt% VA. The accelerated ageing of the joints did not affect the T-peel strength values, but the locus of failure in most cases became fully cohesive in the EVA, likely due to the higher extent of curing of the adhesive.

The influence of different surface treatments on the physical and chemical surface properties of poly(etheretherketone) (PEEK), poly(phenylenesulfide) (PPS) and a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) was studied. For all the three polymers, the adhesion strength of an adhesively-bonded copper foil could be increased significantly by a chemical etching process using chromic sulphuric acid or a low pressure air-plasma treatment. However, for LCP the enhancement of adhesion by the surface treatments was lower than for the other polymers. Peel tests were employed for determining the adhesion strength of the copper foil. The physical surface properties were investigated by laser scanning microscopy (LSM). Contact-angle measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) provided detailed information on the chemical surface properties. The detailed XPS analyses revealed different chemical mechanisms of the surface treatments depending on the polymer investigated. In all cases an incorporation of oxygen containing groups by the surface treatments was found to be responsible for a better adhesion of the copper foil on the treated polymer films compared to the untreated.

The surface of polypropylene (PP) film was oxidized by exposure to a flame fueled by isotopically labeled methane (CD4). The isotopic sensitivity of static secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) was then used to gain new insights into the mechanism of flame treatment. SIMS analysis indicated that much of the oxidation of PP occurring in fuel-lean flames is not deuterated, while for PP treated in fuel-rich flames, some of the affixed oxygen is deuterated. These observations imply that O₂ is the primary source of affixed surface oxygen in fuel-lean flame treatments, but that OH may be a significant source of affixed oxygen in fuel-rich flame treatments. Hydroxyl radicals are primarily responsible for hydrogen abstraction in fuel-lean flames, while H is the primary active gasphase species in fuel-rich flames. SIMS also detected trace quantities of oxidized nitrogen groups affixed to the flame-treated PP.

In this study the effect of low temperature plasma (LTP) treatment of cotton fabric for ink-jet printing was investigated. Owing to the specific printing and conductivity requirements for ink-jet printing, none of the conventional printing chemicals used for cotton fabric can be directly incorporated into the ink formulation. As a result, the cotton fabric requires treatment with the printing chemicals prior to the stage of ink-jet printing. The printing chemicals as a treatment to cotton fabric are applied by the coating method. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility and effectiveness of applying LTP pre-treatment to enhance the performance of treatment paste containing sodium alginate, to improve the properties of the ink-jet printed cotton fabric. Experimental results revealed that the LTP pre-treatment in conjunction with the ink-jet printing technique could improve the final properties of printed cotton fabric.

The aging effects of atmospheric pressure plasma treated fiber surfaces are important for storage and processing of the fibers. One of the high-performance fibers, ultrahigh modulus polyethylene (UHMPE) fiber, was chosen as a model system to investigate the aging process of atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) treated fibers surfaces 0, 7, 15 and 30 days after initial plasma treatment. The fiber was first plasma-treated and then stored at temperatures varying from −80 to 80°C on the same relative humidity (RH, 0%) and on RH of 0%, 65% and 100% at the same temperature of 20°C. Immediately after the plasma treatment, scanning electron microscope (SEM) showed the roughened fiber surface. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis showed changed surface chemical compositions. Contact-angle measurement showed increased surface wettability and microbond test showed an increase in IFSS. With increasing relative humidity or decreasing temperature, the IFSS value decreased and the contact angle increased more slowly. However, after 30 days, the IFSS values and contact angles reached a similar level for all groups. Moisture showed no effect on the single fiber tensile strengths during aging. The reasons for the observed aging behavior could be that decreasing temperature or increasing relative humidity hindered the surface rearrangement of polymer chains after plasma treatment.