Cupric Oxide Nanostructures from Plasma Surface Modification of Copper

Abstract

Taking inspiration from the hydrophilic and superhydrophilic properties observed from the nanostructures present on the leaves of plants such as Alocasia odora, Calathea zebrina, and Ruelia devosiana, we were able to synthesize cupric oxide (CuO) nanostructures from the plasma surface modification of copper (Cu) that exhibits hydrophilic and superhydrophilic properties. The Cu sheets were exposed to oxygen plasma produced from the P300 plasma device (Alliance Concept, Cran-Gevrier, France) at varying power, irradiation times, gas flow rates, and pulsing duty cycles. The untreated and plasma-treated Cu sheets were characterized by contact angle measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) to determine the changes in the surface of Cu before and after plasma treatment. Results showed that plasma-treated Cu sheets exhibited enhanced wetting properties compared to untreated Cu. We attributed the decrease in the measured water contact angles after plasma treatment to increased surface roughness, formation of CuO nanostructures, and transformation of Cu to either CuO2 or Cu2O3. The presence of the CuO nanostructures on the surface of Cu is very useful in terms of its possible applications, such as: (1) in antimicrobial and anti-fouling tubing; (2) in the improvement of heat dissipation devices, such as microfluidic cooling systems and heat pipes; and (3) as an additional protection to Cu from further corrosion. This study also shows the possible mechanisms on how CuO, CuO2, and Cu2O3 were formed from Cu based on the varying the plasma parameters.

Influence of surface modification on droplet mobility during dropwise condensation

“…This may be attributed to the increase in interaction of the different plasma species with the samples which lead to the increase in surface roughness that simultaneously occurs as the oxide layer is formed. This is corroborated by the findings of [69] where they found that at high irradiation power and duty cycle, plasma treatment resulted to physical and chemical change on the material. After, all the samples became superhydrophobic, with θ ranging from 150° to 160°, Table 1.…”

“…Irradiation power was varied from 300 W to 600 W at a fixed irradiation time of 10 minutes. Additional details of the plasma device may be found in [69]. Formation of self‐assembled monolayers (SAM) is achieved by immersing the plasma treated samples in a 2.5 mM solution of n‐octadecyl mercaptan (Sigma Aldrich) in ethanol for 15 h. The samples were then washed with ethanol and allowed to dry in air.…”

Nanoscale-Precision Removal of Copper in Integrated Circuits Based on a Hybrid Process of Plasma Oxidation and Femtosecond Laser Ablation

“…The main content of copper oxide generated in low-power oxygen plasma is Cu 2 O, which is related to the low activation energy required for the formation of Cu 2 O [32]. Therefore, the theoretical models of the fs-laser interaction with Cu and Cu 2 O were established to simulate the ablation of samples by a single-pulse fs-laser with different laser fluences.…”

Resistant amphiphobic textile coating by plasma induced polymerization of a pyrrole derivative grafted to silica nanoparticles and short fluorinated alkyl chains

“…The textile samples were irradiated using oxygen plasma produced from a P300 plasma device (Alliance Concept, France). The schematic diagram and the complete details of the device is described in [52]. The vacuum chamber was first evacuated using a 20 m 3 /h rotary pump and the base pressure was achieved at 6.0 x 10 -2 mbar.…”