TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluation of a reel-to-reel atmospheric plasma system for the treatment of polymers
AU - O'Flynn, Kate
AU - Milosavljević, Vladimir
AU - Dobbyn, Peter
AU - Dowling, Denis P.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2017/3/1
Y1 - 2017/3/1
N2 - Plasma treatments are widely used to enhance the surface energy of polymers prior to bonding or the application of functional coatings. This study investigates the performance of a linear atmospheric pressure plasma source for the reel-to-reel treatment of polymer webs. The continuous argon plasma treatments were carried out on 15 cm diameter polyethylene terephthalate (PET) web substrates using the linear plasma source (Plamax), operating at 13.56 MHz. The study investigated how the processing parameters influenced the effectiveness of the plasma treatment in enhancing both the polymer web's water contact angle (WCA) and surface energy (SE). Based on these measurements the plasma treatment was found to yield a homogeneous level of activation across the 15 cm web, using a treatment speed of 0.9 m/min. The plasma discharge was monitored using both thermal imaging and optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The latter demonstrated how the oxygen species which diffuse into the argon plasma due to air ingress, were directly correlated with the level of polymer activation.
AB - Plasma treatments are widely used to enhance the surface energy of polymers prior to bonding or the application of functional coatings. This study investigates the performance of a linear atmospheric pressure plasma source for the reel-to-reel treatment of polymer webs. The continuous argon plasma treatments were carried out on 15 cm diameter polyethylene terephthalate (PET) web substrates using the linear plasma source (Plamax), operating at 13.56 MHz. The study investigated how the processing parameters influenced the effectiveness of the plasma treatment in enhancing both the polymer web's water contact angle (WCA) and surface energy (SE). Based on these measurements the plasma treatment was found to yield a homogeneous level of activation across the 15 cm web, using a treatment speed of 0.9 m/min. The plasma discharge was monitored using both thermal imaging and optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The latter demonstrated how the oxygen species which diffuse into the argon plasma due to air ingress, were directly correlated with the level of polymer activation.
KW - Atmospheric pressure plasma
KW - Optical emission spectroscopy
KW - Polyethylene terephthalate
KW - Reel-to-reel
KW - Surface energy
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85014270203
U2 - 10.1016/j.surfin.2017.01.005
DO - 10.1016/j.surfin.2017.01.005
M3 - Article
SN - 2468-0230
VL - 6
SP - 162
EP - 169
JO - Surfaces and Interfaces
JF - Surfaces and Interfaces
ER -