Surface modifications of polymethylmetacrylate films using atmospheric pressure air dielectric barrier discharge plasma

In this paper, polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA) films are modified using an atmospheric pressure non-thermal plasma generated by a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) in air. The DBD is generated in a plane-parallel reactor, which is driven by a μs pulse power supply with amplitude of up to 25 kV and repetition rate of 1 kHz, and the plasma generated shows homogeneous mode discharge characteristics verified by electrical measurements and light emission images with 0.5 ms exposure time. The treatment time ranging from 0 to 60 s and the discharge power density ranging from 11.62 to 30.83 W/m2 are used to study the effects of discharge parameters on the surface treatment, and the surface properties of PMMA films are studied using contact angle and surface energy measurement, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The study shows that, after the plasma treatment, the surface of PMMA film is etched, and oxygen-containing polar groups are introduced into the surface. These two processes can induce a remarkable decrease in water contact and a remarkable increase in surface energy, and the surface properties of PMMA films is improved accordingly. It is shown that the improvement of hydrophobicity depends on the discharge power density and treatment time, and there is a saturation treatment time at each discharge power density. Increasing discharge power density can induce more effective treatment of PMMA films, and less treatment time is needed to achieve the same level of surface treatment by increasing the discharge power density. Because more oxygen-containing polar groups are created and more obvious etching is occurred on the PMMA surface at higher discharge power density.

► A homogeneous DBD plasma in atmospheric air is generated and used to treat PMMA films.
► The effects of discharge parameters on PMMA surface modification are investigated.
► The improvement of hydrophilicity relates to surface morphology and chemical changes.
► There is a saturation treatment time for hydrophilicity at each power density.
► The treatment time can be optimized by increasing the discharge power density.