Plasma Processing in Polymers

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2019)

Special Issue Editor

Materials and Life Science Research Division, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea
Interests: 2D and 3D surface modification on soft and hard substrates

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plasma-based technology becomes strongly competitive in polymers, in terms of its flexibility and friendly uses, economy, and safety, which is widely applied in nanotechnology, nanoelectronics and materials processing due to its advantages of highly-controllable surface interaction without affecting the properties of the bulk materials.

Thus, plasmas can be applied for the activation/functionalization of a polymeric surface, etching or nanotexturing of a material or deposition of plasma polymerized coatings under low pressure or even atmospheric pressure condition. Low-pressure plasma technology under vacuum condition has been used for the surface modification of polymeric materials as it has a highly-attractive dry process that is easy to implement, cost effective and environmentally-friendly in low temperature. High pressure, or atmospheric plasma technology has also gained attention as a material processing with no expensive vacuum equipment, rather applied with in-air process like continuous roll-to-roll processing at an industrial scale.

This Special Issue covers plasma-based processing and functionalization in terms of surface modification in terms of chemical, physical and optical properties and its applications of polymer materials in various fields, such as nanotechnology, energy, environment, and biomedical industries. Furthermore, the latest feature articles and review papers with regard to plasma progresses and applications of polymeric materials are particularly welcomed.

Dr. Myoung Woon Moon
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Plasma processes
  • Plasma-based surface functionalization
  • Plasma-based nanostructuring
  • Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition
  • Atmospheric pressure plasma
  • Special wettability for oils or water
  • Plasma-treated interfacial adhesion
  • Biomedical applications of polymers
  • Energy and environmental applications of polymers

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 7243 KiB  
Article
Plasma Polymerized Allylamine—The Unique Cell-Attractive Nanolayer for Dental Implant Materials
by J. Barbara Nebe, Henrike Rebl, Michael Schlosser, Susanne Staehlke, Martina Gruening, Klaus-Dieter Weltmann, Uwe Walschus and Birgit Finke
Polymers 2019, 11(6), 1004; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym11061004 - 05 Jun 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3379
Abstract
Biomaterials should be bioactive in stimulating the surrounding tissue to accelerate the ingrowth of permanent implants. Chemical and topographical features of the biomaterial surface affect cell physiology at the interface. A frequently asked question is whether the chemistry or the topography dominates the [...] Read more.
Biomaterials should be bioactive in stimulating the surrounding tissue to accelerate the ingrowth of permanent implants. Chemical and topographical features of the biomaterial surface affect cell physiology at the interface. A frequently asked question is whether the chemistry or the topography dominates the cell-material interaction. Recently, we demonstrated that a plasma-chemical modification using allylamine as a precursor was able to boost not only cell attachment and cell migration, but also intracellular signaling in vital cells. This microwave plasma process generated a homogenous nanolayer with randomly distributed, positively charged amino groups. In contrast, the surface of the human osteoblast is negatively charged at −15 mV due to its hyaluronan coat. As a consequence, we assumed that positive charges at the material surface—provoking electrostatic interaction forces—are attractive for the first cell encounter. This plasma-chemical nanocoating can be used for several biomaterials in orthopedic and dental implantology like titanium, titanium alloys, calcium phosphate scaffolds, and polylactide fiber meshes produced by electrospinning. In this regard, we wanted to ascertain whether plasma polymerized allylamine (PPAAm) is also suitable for increasing the attractiveness of a ceramic surface for dental implants using Yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasma Processing in Polymers)
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19 pages, 23511 KiB  
Article
Effect of Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Treatment on Adhesive Bonding of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer
by Chengcheng Sun, Junying Min, Jianping Lin and Hailang Wan
Polymers 2019, 11(1), 139; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym11010139 - 15 Jan 2019
Cited by 52 | Viewed by 7655
Abstract
To improve the strength of the adhesive-bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) joints, atmospheric pressure plasma treatment (APPT) was used to treat a CFRP substrate surface. This study investigated the effects of nozzle distance (i.e., the distance between plasma nozzle and CFRP substrate) [...] Read more.
To improve the strength of the adhesive-bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) joints, atmospheric pressure plasma treatment (APPT) was used to treat a CFRP substrate surface. This study investigated the effects of nozzle distance (i.e., the distance between plasma nozzle and CFRP substrate) and nozzle speed (i.e., the moving speed of plasma nozzle relative to CFRP substrate) of APPT on the lap-shear strength of adhesive-bonded CFRP joints. Results show that the lap-shear strength of plasma-treated CFRP joints increased to a peak value and then decreased as the nozzle distance increased, and the nozzle distance associated with the peaked joint strength depends on the applied nozzle speed. The lap-shear strength of plasma-treated adhesive-bonded CFRP joints reaches up to 31.6 MPa, compared to 8.6 MPa of the as-received adhesive-bonded CFRP joints. The surface morphology of plasma-treated CFRP substrates was investigated by scanning electron microscope observation, and the mechanism associated with the improved joint strength after applying APPT was revealed through surface chemistry analysis. It is found that APPT not only effectively removed the content of Si element and –CH3 (i.e., the main compositions of release agent) from the as-received CFRP substrate surface, but also generated many polar groups (i.e., –NH2, –OH, –COOH, etc.), which has a positive effect on increasing the wettability and interfacial bonding strength of CFRP substrates and consequently results in a significant improvement of lap-shear strength of plasma-treated CFRP joints. In addition, the result of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) test shows that the surface temperature of CFRP substrate should not exceed 175.3 °C during APPT. In this study, an empirical model governing temperature, nozzle distance and nozzle speed was established to guide the selection of atmospheric pressure plasma treatment process parameters in industrial manufacture. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasma Processing in Polymers)
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11 pages, 1732 KiB  
Article
Improvement of Adhesion Properties of Polyamide 6 and Polyoxymethylene-Copolymer by Atmospheric Cold Plasma Treatment
by Zoltán Károly, Gábor Kalácska, László Zsidai, Miklós Mohai and Szilvia Klébert
Polymers 2018, 10(12), 1380; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10121380 - 12 Dec 2018
Cited by 32 | Viewed by 4116
Abstract
A study is presented on cold plasma treatment of the surfaces of two engineering polymers, polyamide 6 (PA6) and polyoxymethylene (POM-C), by diffuse coplanar surface barrier discharges under atmospheric air conditions. We found that plasma treatment improved the adhesion of both polymers for [...] Read more.
A study is presented on cold plasma treatment of the surfaces of two engineering polymers, polyamide 6 (PA6) and polyoxymethylene (POM-C), by diffuse coplanar surface barrier discharges under atmospheric air conditions. We found that plasma treatment improved the adhesion of both polymers for either polymer/polymer or polymer/steel joints. However, the improved adhesion was selective for the investigated adhesive agents that were dissimilar for the two studied polymers. In addition, improvement was significantly higher for PA6 as compared to POM-C. The observed variation of the adhesion was discussed in terms of the changes in surface chemistry, wettability and topography of the polymer surface. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasma Processing in Polymers)
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16 pages, 8032 KiB  
Article
Enduring and Stable Surface Dielectric Barrier Discharge (SDBD) Plasma Using Fluorinated Multi-Layered Polyimide
by Dongliang Bian and Yun Wu
Polymers 2018, 10(6), 606; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10060606 - 02 Jun 2018
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4213
Abstract
In this work, multi-layered polyimide (PI) films were surface fluorinated at 328 K and 0.05 MPa using F2/N2 mixture with 20% F2 by volume, for a fluorination time of 0, 30 and 60 min, respectively. Then, they were subjected [...] Read more.
In this work, multi-layered polyimide (PI) films were surface fluorinated at 328 K and 0.05 MPa using F2/N2 mixture with 20% F2 by volume, for a fluorination time of 0, 30 and 60 min, respectively. Then, they were subjected to discharge plasma as barrier dielectrics of surface dielectric barrier discharge (SDBD) at ambient atmospheric air. The dielectric lifetime of SDBD greatly extends after 60 min surface fluorination. In addition, optical emission spectroscopy (OES) results indicate that during the plasma processing, SDBD with fluorinated PI can obtain more stable plasma parameters, including gas temperature and electron temperature. Dielectric surface properties were further evaluated by infrared thermography, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It is considered that both physical and chemical effects lead to the extension of dielectric lifetime. The physical effect is reflected in low surface temperature and increased surface roughness, while the chemical effect is reflected in the graft of fluorine groups. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plasma Processing in Polymers)
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