Surface chemistry of nitrogen plasma-treated poly(ethylene-2,6-naphthalate): XPS, HREELS and static SIMS analysis
✍ Scribed by Gerenser, L. J.; Grace, J. M.; Apai, G.; Thompson, P. M.
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 200 KB
- Volume
- 29
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0142-2421
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✦ Synopsis
Plasma treatments typically affect only the outer few nanometers of a polymer surface and produce a complex mixture of surface functionalities. For a given plasma gas, the population of plasma-induced surface functionalities is influenced by several plasma parameters (power, pressure and residence time) and the chemical structure of the polymer. We have done a systematic investigation of the effect of these plasma parameters on the surface chemistry of a nitrogen plasma-modified polyester: poly(ethylene-2,6-naphthalate) (PEN). The surface chemistry was characterized with a combination of surface-sensitive spectroscopies; x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), high-resolution electron energy-loss spectroscopy (HREELS) and static secondary ion mass spectrometry (static SIMS). We have found that nitrogen plasma treatment incorporates up to 13 at.% nitrogen in the upper 5 nm of PEN and disrupts both the ester groups and the naphthalene rings. Disruption of the naphthalene rings produces an aliphatic-like species and disruption of the ester groups produces either isolated carbonyl groups or, upon reaction with nitrogen, amide groups. The incorporated nitrogen is primarily in the form of amine and amide groups. Both pressure and dose were found to affect the degree of disruption of the polymer surface, the amount of incorporated nitrogen and the relative population of amine and amide groups.