A Review of Plasma Synthesis Methods for Polymer Films and Nanoparticles under Atmospheric Pressure Conditions

Abstract

In this paper, we present an overview of recent approaches in the gas/aerosol-through-plasma (GATP) and liquid plasma methods for synthesizing polymer films and nanoparticles (NPs) using an atmospheric-pressure plasma (APP) technique. We hope to aid students and researchers starting out in the polymerization field by compiling the most commonly utilized simple plasma synthesis methods, so that they can readily select a method that best suits their needs. Although APP methods are widely employed for polymer synthesis, and there are many related papers for specific applications, reviews that provide comprehensive coverage of the variations of APP methods for polymer synthesis are rarely reported. We introduce and compile over 50 recent papers on various APP polymerization methods that allow us to discuss the existing challenges and future direction of GATP and solution plasma methods under ambient air conditions for large-area and mass nanoparticle production.

Improvement of Nanostructured Polythiophene Film Uniformity Using a Cruciform Electrode and Substrate Rotation in Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Polymerization

“…Thus, in nonthermal AP plasma, diverse reactive species and high-energy electrons exist at low gaseous temperatures, and this nonthermal behavior has great potential for applications in synthesizing thermally sensitive materials, including polymers. AP plasma polymerization is a convenient and effective approach for depositing conjugated nanostructured polymer films, because this process has the great advantage of not requiring a vacuum chamber and the relevant vacuum equipment for plasma polymerization [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”

Sensitivity Enhancement in Plasma Polymer Films for Surface Acoustic Wave Based Sensor Applications

“…For many years, material surface modification using plasma has been widely used for cleaning adsorbed contaminants. Recently, this technique has also been extensively applied for other purposes such as etching, activation, and crosslinking [15,16], as well as for surface modification of polymers [17][18][19]. In the current study, we used plasma modification because it is simple, reproducible, and easy to implement in the same plasma reactor that we used for PPF deposition.…”

Improvement of the Uniformity and Electrical Properties of Polyaniline Nanocomposite Film by Addition of Auxiliary Gases during Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Polymerization

“…Plasma polymerization is a process of synthesizing vaporized reactive monomers produced by gaseous plasmas into a polymeric composite [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ], and the resulting polymers are generally manufactured on a substrate as a thin film [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. In manufacturing functional polymer films, plasma polymerization methods have several irreplaceable advantages, such as a simple one-step synthesis process, an ecofriendly polymerization process that does not produce chemical waste, a dry process that uses a small amount of monomer, and a room temperature process with low-power consumption [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Various radicals and reactive species generated through diverse successive interactions with charged particles, vaporized monomers, and neutral gas species remain conserved or react with each other to form crosslinks in atmospheric pressure (AP) plasma polymerization, which uses nonthermal glow discharge at AP.…”