Influence of air addition on surface modification of polyethylene terephthalate treated by an atmospheric pressure argon plasma brush

Abstract

An atmospheric pressure argon plasma brush with air addition is employed to treat polyethylene terephthalate (PET) surface in order to improve its hydrophilicity. Results indicate that the plasma plume generated by the plasma brush presents periodically pulsed current despite a direct current voltage is applied. Voltage−current curve reveals that there is a transition from a Townsend discharge regime to a glow one during one discharge period. Optical emission spectrum indicates that more oxygen atoms are produced in the plume with increasing air content, which leads to the better hydrophilicity of PET surface after plasma treatment. Besides, an aging behavior is also observed. The hydrophilicity improvement is attributed to the production of oxygen functional groups, which increase in number with increasing air content. Moreover, some grain-like structures are observed on the treated PET surface, and its mean roughness increases with increasing air content. These results are of great importance for the hydrophilicity improvement of PET surface with a large scale.

Discharge aspects of a snake‐like plasma plume generated by an atmospheric pressure plasma jet with variable argon flow rate

“…[1,2] The produced plasma in air ambient is also called a plasma plume, [3][4][5][6] in which there are abundant active species. [7] Due to its flexibility and low cost, plasma jet has become a promising tool for the applications in biomedicine, [8,9] material synthesis, [10][11][12] surface modification, [13][14][15] light source, [16] and water purification. [17][18][19] Plasma jet is normally fed with inert gas, such as helium, [20][21][22] argon, [23][24][25][26] neon, [27][28][29] and so on.…”

Complicated streamer dynamics in petal‐like patterns formed on the substrate downstream of an argon plasma jet

“…The atmospheric pressure plasma jet, which can produce various reactive particles, offers a chamber‐less delivery of downstream reaction chemistry. [ 1,2 ] Due to these advantages, the plasma jet has great potential for applications spanning from biomedicine, [ 3,4 ] biocatalyst, [ 5 ] nano‐material synthesis, [ 6 ] surface modification, [ 7,8 ] to many other fields. [ 9,10 ]…”

“…The atmospheric pressure plasma jet, which can produce various reactive particles, offers a chamber-less delivery of downstream reaction chemistry. [1,2] Due to these advantages, the plasma jet has great potential for applications spanning from biomedicine, [3,4] biocatalyst, [5] nano-material synthesis, [6] surface modification, [7,8] to many other fields. [9,10] Plasma jet fed with inert gas normally operates in a streamer regime, [11] which is not the same as traditional positive streamer discharges, but features as composed of a plasma bullet propagating with a velocity of 10 3 -10 6 m/s.…”

Electrodeless discharge in water: Reactive species in liquid and gas phase and energy cost for nitrogen fixation

“…Atmospheric‐pressure plasma (APP) has been studied extensively in the last few decades, because of several urgent applications including wastewater treatment, plasma medicine, plasma etching, surface modification, and nitrogen fixation. [ 1–25 ] Plasma activated water (PAW) is one of the hot research topics of APP, which generates plasma in or above the liquid surface, or in water mist and results in a high concentration of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) in liquid. [ 24,25 ] When plasma is generated above the liquid surface, the RONS are formed in the gas phase first and then diffuse to the liquid.…”