Plasma-induced graft-polymerisation of ethylene glycol methacrylate phosphate on polyethylene films

A detailed study of argon plasma-induced graft-polymerisation of ethylene glycol methacrylate phosphate (EGMP) on polyethylene (PE) substrates is presented. The process consists of four steps: (a) plasma pre-activation of the PE substrates; (b) immersion in an EGMP solution; (c) argon plasma-induced graft-polymerisation; (d) washing and drying of the samples. Influence of the solution and plasma parameters on the process efficiency, evaluated in terms of amount of grafted polymer and coverage uniformity, is investigated. The plasma-induced graft-polymerisation of EGMP is then followed by sample weighting, contact angle measurements, attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) analysis. Finally, flame-retardant properties of modified PE substrates are evaluated by limiting oxygen index (LOI) measurements.