Influence of plasma treatment on wettability and scratch resistance of Ag-coated polymer substrates

Abstract

Rapid progress in thin-film coatings based on metals, which can be deposited on polymers, has been recently observed. In this work discussion on the properties of modified polymers and silver thin films deposited on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polycarbonate (PC) substrates has been presented. Surface of these polymer substrates were exposed to argon plasma discharge. Additionally, silver thin films were deposited on their surface by electron beam evaporation method. The surfaces of the modified polymers were studied by different methods, i.e. topography, wettability and scratch resistance measurements were performed. The ageing effect of treated substrates was also discussed. It was shown that plasma modification of PTFE and PC substrates increased wettability of their surfaces. The value of water contact angle decreased of about 40 % and 25 % for PTFE and PC surface, respectively. The change of hydrophobic to hydrophilic properties was observed. Plasma modification of substrates improved adhesion between silver coating and polymer substrates. However, it did not influence wettability of Ag coating.

Investigations of optical and surface properties of Ag single thin film coating as semitransparent heat reflective mirror

“…For the purpose of further investigations, the silver thin film with the thickness of 15 nm were evaporated using a typical box coater equipped with electron beam evaporation system [4]. Prior to deposition the 400 L vacuum chamber was evacuated with rotary and diffusion pumps to the base pressure of 1.5 × 10 −3 Pa.…”

Investigation of various properties of HfO 2 -TiO 2 thin film composites deposited by multi-magnetron sputtering system

“…Steel wool test was carried out and consisted of rubbing the surface of prepared thin films for 75 cycles with 0 grade steel wool pad using applied load of 1.0 N. The abrasion resistance test was made for the transparent metal oxide coatings according to the well acknowledged standard [43] and literature reports (e.g. [41,44,45]). Surface of transparent oxide thin films was examined for scratch resistance by optical microscope Olympus BX51 working in reflected light mode.…”

Ink‐Based Additive Nanomanufacturing of Functional Materials for Human‐Integrated Smart Wearables

“…Surface modifications, such as plasma treatment, are usually applied to improve the wettability of substrates. [287,288] For example, O 2 and Ar plasma have been applied to modify PI substrates coated with hydrophobic materials for inkjet printing. [289] The plasma-treated surfaces exhibit better hydrophilicity and yield larger ink dot size on the surface, due to the removal of hydrophobic coating on the PI substrates.…”