ABSTRACT
In this chapter, atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) and its application for polymer surface modification is reported. Atmospheric pressure 398plasma jet sustained in argon/oxygen mixture has been used to modify the surface properties of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polycarbonate (PC). The surface properties of the untreated and plasma treated HDPE and PC samples were characterized by contact angle measurement with water and glycerol. The contact angles were used to determine the surface energy and its polar and dispersion component. The effects of treatment time, frequency of the applied voltage and distance of the sample from the nozzle on the wettability of the sample were studied. The water contact angle of untreated PC and HDPE samples were 89° and 94.6°, respectively. After treatment for 2 minutes, the contact angles were found to be less than 40° for both the samples. Moreover, it was found that, the best plasma treatment can be obtained with frequency 27 kHz and a distance of 3.5 cm between surface of samples (HDPE and PC) and plasma jet’s nozzle. Our result showed that atmospheric pressure nonthermal plasma can be effectively used to enhance the surface wettability of HDPE and PC. Argon/oxygen plasma jet is more efficient on treatment of polymers than pure argon jet.
