Surface modification of polymethylmethacrylate foils using an atmospheric pressure plasma jet in presence of water vapors

• Modification of polymethylmethacrylate foil wetability by atmospheric pressure plasma jet.
• Treatments performed using dry or humid argon plasma.
• Humid plasma treatments are more efficient when compared to the dry plasma ones.

In this work polymethylmethacrylate foil surfaces are modified using a non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma jet generated by a discharge with bare electrodes. The study focuses on a comparison of the treatments performed using plasma generated in Ar/water vapors mixture (humid plasma) and dry Ar. Injecting small amounts of water vapors in the discharge, a substantial improvement of the polymeric foils surface wettability was obtained. For a similar improvement of the wettability, the duration of treatment with dry argon plasma is six times longer. The investigations of the treated surfaces show that the wettability of the polymeric foils is mainly improved due to the surface roughening during dry plasma treatments, while the chemical changes of the sample surface prevail in the case of humid plasma treatments.