Analysis of microscopic modifications and macroscopic surface properties of polystyrene thin films treated under d.c. pulsed discharge conditions

Abstract

Using a DC pulsed plasma for the polymer surface treatment allows the attainment of macroscopic modifications of the surface such as an important increase of the wettability. In the same time microscopic variations of the surface structure are mainly linked to low depth chemical modifications even if very weak roughness changes appear.As a consequence this technique presents two major interests. The first one is an economical interest because of the low power consumption compared to other techniques like radiofrequency or microwaves plasmas. The second one is the very significant treatment (macroscopic) realized in soft conditions without degradation of the polymer.These results composed of macroscopic and microscopic studies on polystyrene surfaces may allow to establish a macroscopic interpretation of the interaction between polymer and the DC pulsed plasma.

Effect of Nitrogen Gas Cold Plasma on Cotton Fabric Dyed with Reactive Dyes

“…9 indicates the Lab rate, hue length and hue angle for D65 standard light source (illuminant). The a* rate of standard D65, the standard daylight illuminant, is negative for the untreated samples dyed with reactive yellow 105 and plasma treated samples at 1 and 5 min of plasma exposure time (1, 2, 3) compared to the untreated dyed sample with reactive yellow 3 and plasma treated sample at 1 and 5 min (4,5,6). However, the a* rate was the same for each of 1 to 6 samples at standard light source; thus, it can be concluded that the plasma conditions don't affect the a* rate.…”

“…Meanwhile, it is observed that the difference between the samples, not exposed to plasma (1,4), was more than plasma treated samples. Thus, it can be concluded that plasma operation can somehow change the colour of samples.…”

“…The operations done by different gas plasmas could widely change the water absorption from moderate hydrophilic to high hydrophilic. In fact, plasma, depending on the experiment conditions, could result in these four effects i.e., purification (removal of organic contaminations), corrosion (removal of polymer materials and polymer destruction), create cross link bond (free radicals formation and make macromolecules branching), Forming new level of functional groups at a high depth of 10 nm 1,4,5 . Advantages of plasma operation are as follows; it modifies the farthest outer part of a thin surface layer while keeping the mass particulars unchanged, has the lowest chemical consumption and the highest safety, does not produce sewage, has the smallest effect on the environment and in the ecology of the textile mills 6,7 .…”

Nitrogen plasma functionalization of low density polyethylene

“…This shoulder increased slightly in intensity after the treatment of the untreated samples with the different plasmas. Such an increase has been usually attributed to the surface incorporation of oxygen and/or nitrogen functional groups characterized by different binding energies: C-N/C-O (285.9 eV), C≡N (286.7 eV), N-CjO/CjO (287.6 eV) and N-C(jO)-N/O-CjO (288.9 eV) [31,[39][40][41][42]. Because of the superposition in this spectral region of the possible contribution of quite different functional groups of carbon bonded to oxygen and/or nitrogen, no fitting analysis will be intended here.…”

XPS and ToF‐SIMS characterization of a Finemet surface: effect of cooling

“…16 The third component in the O 1s envelope located at 533.6 eV may be formed by contributions from carboxyl groups -O-C O 17 and adsorbed water. 15 The major component of the C 1s line located at 285.1 eV corresponds to hydrocarbon HC-CH bonds, 18 while the minor components at 286.6 and 288.6 eV can be ascribed to C-O, C-OH 16,19 and O-C O 16,20 groups, respectively ( Fig. 1(d), curve 1).…”