Possessing excellent properties including good biocompatibility, high strength, and stiffness, polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) has significant application values in medical and industrial fields. However, the relatively poor wettability and low adhesion limit its further applications. Atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) has been utilized for adjusting PEEK properties, but better hydrophilization effect and time stability after treatment are still urgently needed. In this paper, we employ a water-mixing nitrogen (N 2 H 2 O) APPJ to process PEEK, and surface wettability can be effectively improved (contact angle~18 within 2 min, distance between sample and nozzle outlet: 10 mm) without inducing obvious microstructure damages. Additionally, after storing for 40 days, the sample treated by N 2 H 2 O APPJ also possessed better wettability (~54) compared with that treated by N 2 APPJ (~65). On the basis of this lowdamage and high-efficient modification method, we perform aging experiments under different conditions (different temperatures 25, −10 C; and low vacuum condition: 50 kPa) to determine a relatively optimum storing condition for this method. The experiment results indicate that low temperature and vacuum are conducive to retaining the plasma-induced wettability (~34). The treatment method and storing conditions for PEEK presented here may facilitate the application of PEEK in various fields.
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