Three different discharge types, based on the principle of a dielectric barrier discharge at atmospheric pressure, were investigated with regard to their influence on the adhesion properties of a series of wood–polymer composites. Wood flour (Picea abies L.) filled polypropylene and various proportions of polyethylene were manufactured either through extrusion or injection molding. The composites’ surfaces were activated by coplanar surface barrier discharge, remote plasma, and direct dielectric barrier discharge. The changes in wettability due to the pretreatment were investigated by contact angle measurement using the sessile drop method and calculation of surface free energy (SFE). It could be shown that wettability was improved by all three types of discharge, the contact angle decreased and the SFE correspondingly increased. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed an increase in the O/C ratio at the material's surface. An improvement in coating adhesion was demonstrated by crosscut and pulloff tests

In this study, three different dielectric barrier discharges, based on the same setup and run with the same power supply, are characterized by emission spectroscopy with regards to the reduced electrical field strength, and the rotational, vibrational and electron temperature. To compare discharges common for the treatment on wood, a coplanar surface barrier discharge, a direct dielectric barrier discharge and a jet system/remote plasma are chosen. To minimize influences due to the setups or power, the discharges are realized with the same electrodes and power supply and normalized to the same power. To evaluate the efficiency of the different discharges and the influence on treated materials, the surface free energy is determined on a maple wood, high density fiberboard and wood plastic composite. The influence is measured depending on the treatment time, with the highest impact in the time of 5 s.

In this paper, an absorption spectroscopy measurement method was applied on two atmospheric pressure plasma sources to determine their production of nitric oxide. The concentrations are essential for evaluating the plasma sources based on the principle of the Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) for applications in plasma medicine. The described method is based on a setup with an electrodeless discharge lamp filled with a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen. One of the emitted wavelengths is an important resonance wavelength of nitric oxide (λ = 226.2 nm). By comparing the absorption behaviour at the minimum and maximum of the spectral absorption cross section of nitric oxide around that wavelength, and measuring the change in intensity by the absorbing plasma, the concentration of nitric oxide inside the plasma can be calculated. The produced nitric oxide concentrations depend on the pulse duration and are in the range of 180 ppm to 1400 ppm, so that a distance of about 10 cm to the respiratory tract is enough to conform to the VDI Guideline 2310.

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