Abstract
To control the contamination resistance of polymer surfaces, surface hydrophobization and hydrophilization were attempted by two atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) treatments. Poly(ethylene terephthalate) and cellulose films were treated by using APPJ for subsequent coating with hexamethyldisiloxane and by APPJ-induced oxidation. For comparison to the APPJ treatments, chemical wet treatments with fluorinated and polyethylene glycol-based resins were also attempted. Each treatment substantially changed the wettability of both films, depending on the surface chemical composition, as determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The APPJ-coating and APPJ-oxidation treatments resulted in excellent water and oil repellency and high wettability, respectively. The deposition test was performed using red clay, montmorillonite and carbon black as model contaminants. The experimental results showed that the contaminant deposition onto both films in air was significantly reduced by the APPJ-coating. The removal of any contaminant from both films by aqueous cleaning was promoted by the APPJ-oxidation. The granular morphology of the film surfaces after the APPJ-coating treatment, which was observed by scanning electron microscopy, may be the underlying factor resulting in the superior contamination resistance observed, owing to a decrease in the contact area with the contaminant.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Nihon Plasmatreat Inc. for sample preparation through APPJ-coating as well as Miss Natsumi Togawa of Nara Women’s University for her experimental assistance. We also thank Teijin DuPont, Rengo Co., Ltd, Lion Corporation and Ohara Paragium Chemical Co., Ltd for providing the PET and cellulose films, the non-ionic surfactants and the two resins, respectively. This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan via a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (grant number 26282012).
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Gotoh, K., Shohbuke, E., Kuroda, Y. et al. Contamination control of polymer films by two atmospheric pressure plasma jet treatments. Polym J 48, 889–896 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2016.50
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2016.50
