The Influence of Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Treatment on Surface Properties of Polypropylene Films
Institute of Polymer Materials, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, Bratislava 812 37, Slovakia
E-mail: * xoravcovaa@stuba.sk
Abstract: In this work the influence of the atmospheric pressure plasma treatment on the surface properties of polypropylene (PP) films was investigated. The film samples were modified by atmospheric pressure plasma treatment by diffuse coplanar surface barrier discharge (DCSBD) using ambient air as working gas. The contact angle measurement, the test pen method, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and attenuated total reflection technique Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) were applied to analyze the changes of the surface of the polymer film. In all experiments, the contact angle of the treated polypropylene samples decreased and the surface energy of the samples increased in comparison with the plasma untreated samples. The proper surface energy for printing using solvent-based inks was detected by all the samples. There were not observed any significant changes in mechanical properties of the films after plasma treatment by measuring their tear parameters.
Keywords: plasma treatment, polypropylene film, surface energy, wetting
Full paper in Portable Document Format: acs_0068.pdf
Acta Chimica Slovaca, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2010, pp. 57—62