The anticorrosion effect and biocompatibility property of Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) materials have been used in a variety of commercially available products and medical devices for many years. In this work, the treatment of surfaces prepared PMMA films by oxygen, argon and nitrogen plasma, requires understanding the effect of low energy ions on the surface modification of the film of PMMA. Due to this, the samples of prepared PMMA were exposed to three different gases at the same discharge conditions. Changes within the morphology and surface hydrophilicity of the treated samples were characterized by optical microscope images and the measurements of contact angle. Treatment of PMMA with O2, N2, Ar gases displayed a decreasing in the contact angle that results in increasing surface free energy. Oxygen –plasma treatment of PMMA films leads to high aspect ratio topography, with increased roughness for (5-30) minute process durations.
In this paper, a lab-scale direct current (DC) glow discharges plasma system was used to adjust the surfaces of polymeric films. Characteristics of the plasma system have displayed under the discharge of three gasses (O2, N2 and Ar). DC-Plasma system has been used for the adjustment of polymethyl methacrylate surface as a function of treatment time and the types of gases. The modified surface was characterized in terms of crystal structure and surface morphology by the analysis of X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). A comparison between treated and untreated films was also made. The roughness and the root mean square (RMS) for pure PMMA films were continuously increased with increasing the exposure time for different gasses. SEM images observed degradation of the surface with granular spots due to the chain missioning and cross-linking effects. An efficient method of treatment for enhancing the surface roughness of pure-PMMA polymer is the using of argon plasma compared to O2, N2 plasma.
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