Influence of oxygen plasma treatment parameters on poly(vinylidene fluoride) electrospun fiber mats wettability

Abstract

Lanceros-Méndez, S. (2015). Influence of oxygen plasma treatment parameters on poly(vinylidene fluoride) electrospun fiber mats wettability. Progress in Organic Coatings, 85 151-158.Influence of oxygen plasma treatment parameters on poly(vinylidene fluoride) electrospun fiber mats wettability AbstractElectrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) fiber mats found applications in an increasing number of areas, such as battery separators, filtration and detection membranes, due to their excellent properties. However, there are limitations due to the hydrophobic nature and low surface energy of PVDF. In this work, oxygen plasma treatment has been applied in order to modify the surface wettability of PVDF fiber mats and superhydrophilic PVDF electrospun membranes have been obtained. Further, plasma treatment does not significantly influences fiber average size (~400 ± 200 nm), morphology, electroactive B-phase content (~80-85%) or the degree of crystallinity (Xc of 42 ± 2%), allowing to maintain the excellent physic-chemical characteristics of PVDF. Plasma treatment mainly induces surface chemistry modifications, such as the introduction of oxygen and release of fluorine atoms that significantly changes polymer membrane wettability by a reduction of the contact angle of the polymer fibers and an overall decrease of the surface tension of the membranes.

Novel electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride-graphene oxide-silver nanocomposite membranes with protein and bacterial antifouling characteristics

“…The fiber size histograms [25,28,30,34,47]. For example, Hwang et al [48] reported that the porosity of electrospun PVDF mats falls in the range of 35-48%, while Coreia et al [49] reported a porosity of 79%. The factors affect electrospinning include polymer solution parameters, i.e.…”

Designing electrospun nanocomposite poly(vinylidene fluoride) mats with tunable wettability

“…FTIR is a common technique for the identification of the crystal phases co-existing in a PVDF sample [22,[24][25][26][27]29,56]. Each crystal phase absorbs infrared radiation at its own specific wavelengths, therefore the analysis of the infrared spectrum can easily reveal the structural characteristics of PVDF.…”

“…PVDF exhibits five different types of crystal structure, namely α, β, γ, δ and ε, each one having different characteristics [25][26][27][28][29][30]. The macromolecules in the α-phase have alternating trans and gauche configuration (TGTG'), thus they are non-polar [25][26][27]29].…”

“…The macromolecules in the α-phase have alternating trans and gauche configuration (TGTG'), thus they are non-polar [25][26][27]29]. In contrast, β-phase has all-trans (TTTT) planar zigzag configuration which creates a permanent dipole [25][26][27][28][29]. Therefore, β-phase has the most pronounced piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties and it is the desired phase that PVDF should have for utilization in relevant applications.…”

Surface modification and fatigue properties of electrical discharge machined aluminum alloy 6061 using plasma etching

“…The applications of oxygen plasma treatments such as hardening of tools, manufacturing of semiconductor integrated circuits, and surface adhesion or wettability improvement are extensively used in the manufacture industries. [20][21][22] The plasma generates volatile compounds from the chemical reactions between the elements of the sample etched and the reactive species generated by the plasma. Then, the volatile compounds could be removed from the sample surface and a clear and smooth profile is obtained.…”