Economical Advantages of Low‐Pressure Plasma Polymerization Coating

Abstract

Summary: Low‐pressure plasma polymerization coating, as described in this paper, is an ultimately green process that uses a minimum amount of substances and produces a minimum amount of effluent and hence does not require an environmental remediation process. The super‐green aspect of the processing entirely changes the equation for the viability of the process in industrial applications. The main hampering factors for the low‐pressure processes are 1) psychological fear of vacuum processes, 2) relatively high initial equipment costs, and 3) a lack of adequate cost estimate for the entire process. In many cases, the first two factors are enough for planners to shy away from this promising technology. However, when one examines the overall cost of processing as a whole, the cost of initial equipment often is not the decisive factor. Such cases are presented in the nano‐film coating applied in corrosion protection of aluminum alloys, steel, and surface‐state modification of contact lenses. The benefits of environmental friendliness, non‐hazardous processing and superior performance of products that can be achieved only by low‐pressure plasma polymerization coatings are more than enough to compensate the initial cost of the equipment.For nanofilm (20 nm) coatings, the most expensive annual operation cost is for wastewater treatment, which is much more than the initial cost of vacuum plasma polymerization reactor.magnified imageFor nanofilm (20 nm) coatings, the most expensive annual operation cost is for wastewater treatment, which is much more than the initial cost of vacuum plasma polymerization reactor.

Electrical characterisations of plasma polyermised linalyl acetate

“…One such material, linalyl acetate, a principle component of essential oils such as Lavandula angustifolia, is an environmentally friendly, non-synthetic material, and in conjunction with plasma polymerisation provides a completely 'green' product fabricated via safe and cost effective methods. The benefits of such films and techniques in industry has been recently discussed by Yasuda [21]. This material has been a subject of recent study into its optical and morphological characteristics [22], as well as its influence over the growth and optical characteristics of an n-type organic semiconductor [23].…”

Growth Mechanism of Oxygen-Containing Functional Plasma Polymers

“…Some examples include permanent hydrophilic treatments of textiles or contact lenses and the formation of carboxylated surfaces which can serve as platforms for the immobilization of bioactive molecules for biointerfaces (in which case already low densities of functional groups are sufficient). [1][2][3][4][5] Although acrylic acid is often used as monomer for plasma polymerization, mixtures of hydrocarbons with carbon dioxide might show some advantages. [6,7] Experimental series using hydrocarbon monomers show a complex behaviour of the deposition rate as a function of the energy input, where often a drop in deposition rate is reported at higher plasma energies.…”

DUV Interferometry for Micro and Nanopatterned Surfaces

“…Such surfaces are of importance for controlled deposition of nanoobjects, for applications in biology, or sensors. In this context, polymers deposited by plasma polymerization have proved to be relevant since they present the following inherent advantages: i) the plasmachemical surface functionalization step is substrate-independent (Boening, 1988), ii) the plasma polymer thin film provides a good adhesion with most of the substrates (Roucoules et al, 2007), iii) the surface density of immobilized molecular species can be finely tuned by varying the pulsed plasma duty cycle (Teare et al, 2002;Oye et al, 2003) and iv) the plasma polymerization step is easily scaled up to industrial dimension (Yasuda & Matsuzawa, 2005). It was recently demonstrated that Deep-UV lithography could be used to generate topography patterns at the surface of maleic anhydride-based plasma polymers with typical dimension down to 75 nm .…”