Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
8027282 | Surface and Coatings Technology | 2014 | 9 Pages |
Abstract
Plasma treatment is often used to modify the surface properties of polymer films, since it offers numerous advantages over the conventional surface modification techniques. However, plasma-treated polymer films have a tendency to revert back to the untreated state (aging process). Therefore, the stability of plasma-induced changes on polymer surfaces over a desired period of time is a very important issue. The objective of this study is to examine the effect of storage conditions (relative humidity and temperature) on the aging behavior in air of plasma-treated low density polyethylene (LDPE) films. Plasma treatment is performed using a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) operating in different argon/water vapor mixtures at medium pressure (5.0Â kPa). Results show that the aging process can be suppressed by storing the plasma-modified LDPE films at low temperature and by decreasing the relative humidity of the surrounding air. Adding water vapor in the plasma discharge has a positive influence on the aging process: lower plateau WCA values are found for plasmas containing a higher water vapor concentration and it takes a longer time to reach these plateau values. In this paper, it is also shown that storage first at a lower temperature and then aging at a higher temperature is not able to slow down the aging effect.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Materials Science
Nanotechnology
Authors
Annick Van Deynse, Pieter Cools, Christophe Leys, Rino Morent, Nathalie De Geyter,