ABSTRACT
Polymer surfaces are often difficult to wet and bond, because of low surface energy, incompatibility, chemical inertness, or the presence of contaminants and weak boundary layers. Surface treatments are used to change the chemical composition, increase the surface energy, modify the crystalline morphology and surface topography, or remove the contaminants and weak boundary layers. Many processes have been developed to modify polymer surfaces, including chemical treatments, photochemical treatments, plasma treatments, heterogeneous nucleation, and surface grafting. These processes generally cause physical or chemical changes in a thin surface layer (100 Å to 100 µm thick) without affecting the bulk properties.
