This work on the etching of polymers in oxygen plasmas begins with a general review of experimental data and modeling attempts. Result analysis leads to an extended etching model based on the description of polymer surfaces composed of chain segments randomly distributed and taking into account the microscopic structure of polymers at the atomic and molecular level. Experimental data also suggest that thermally activated desorption of CO, in addition to CO 2 desorption, and UV-induced etching, in addition to ion-induced etching, must be incorporated in the modeling. The analytical results confirm the impossibility to reach perfect anisotropy in presence of UVinduced desorption and also to determine directly from Arrhenius plots the activation energies for CO and CO 2 thermal desorption.

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Enzymatic electrodes for glucose biosensors and glucose/oxygen biofuel cells were prepared by the sequential coating of carbon nanotube (CNT), ZnO nano rods, charge transfer complex based on tetracyanoquinodimethane and tetrathiafulvalene (TCNQ-TTF), and glucose oxidase. Among the prepared electrodes (TCNQ-TTF/GOx/Nafion, ZnO/GOx/Nafion, CNT/GOx/Nafion, ZnO/TCNQ-TTF/GOx/Nafion, and CNT/TCNQ-TTF/GOx/Nafion), the CNT/TCNQ-TTF/GOx/Nafion electrode exhibited the best electrochemical performance. It was found that the TCNQ-TTF electron mediator played a critical role in the electron transfer for the active sites of GOx to the electrode and the peak current increased by 150% due to the presence of CNTs. The peak current of the CNT/TCNQ-TTF/GOx/Nafion electrode increased linearly with the increase of glucose concentration in the range of 0-15 mM. The CNT/TCNQ-TTF/GOx/Nafion electrode was integrated with a bilirubin oxidase-immobilized cathode for biofuel cell applications. The maximum power density at glucose concentrations of 20 and 200 mM were 8.1 and 17.8 microW/cm2, respectively. The result of this study indicates that the CNT/Fc/GOx/CHI electrode can be applied in the development of biofuel cells and biosensors.