Search

Nonthermal plasma (NTP) is an interesting technique regarding improvements of surface properties of polymeric materials. Three polymers are considered in this study, namely polypropylene (PP), polycarbonate (PC) and polyurethane (PU) chosen for their diversity of use in technical applications. An atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) using air as working gas is constructed for the treatment of polymer specimens with moderate thermal load for different treatment time intervals and at different nozzle-specimen inter distances. PC specimen is found to suffer most from temperature increase, followed by PU then PP which withstand better the heat generated by plasma. After plasma treatment, surface properties of the considered polymers are investigated using water drop analysis, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, surface tester profilometer, and reflectance spectrophotometer. Plasma improves surface properties as wettability, work of energy, surface energy, roughness, and dyeability of treated polymer surfaces. Those properties are found to increase with plasma exposure time; showing more pronounced effects on PU followed by PC and PP. This study can guide the decision of using a certain polymer type treated by plasma for achieving specific applications demanding higher performance of the polymeric material to face challenging practical conditions on wettability and dyeability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]