ABSTRACT
Polymer materials with improved mechanical, optical and electrical properties have been widely used in a variety of industrial applications. However, their use is sometimes limited by the undesirable properties of the surface, as opposed to the very useful bulk characteristics, such as light weight, chemical inertness and high impact resistance. It is, therefore, necessary to modify the surface in a controlled manner to enhance wettability, printability, adhesion to other materials and compatibility (as in the production of blends using two immiscible polymers). The important feature of surface modification is that the surface properties of the treated material can be modified without altering their intrinsic bulk properties
[1]. Several methods, including chemical, flame, corona and cold plasma treatments, have been devised for this purpose [2, 3]. After surface treatments, hydrophilic and/or polar groups can be formed on polymer surfaces, and these increase the polar component of surface energy of polymer materials. When polymer surfaces were modified by the above methods, however, undesirable effects, such as bond scission and carbonization, were also produced [ 4-6]. Therefore, new surface modification methods are required to obtain polymer surfaces free of surface damage and having good wettability and high surface energy. In this paper, we review the experimental results obtained for various polymers modified by IAR treatment and investigate the changes in physical and chemical properties of JARtreated polymer surfaces. Based on these results, the adhesion enhancement between the modified polymers and other materials is explained in terms of wettability, surface energy and surface morphology. Adhesion enhancement mechanisms are proposed. Possible industrial applications of the IAR technique are discussed in the various fields of electronics, composites, biomaterials, etc.
