Plasma Nanotechnology for Controlling Chemical and Physical Properties of Organosilicon Nanocoatings

Nonthermal tetravinylsilane plasma used for thin‐film deposition: Plasma chemistry controls thin‐film chemistry

“…The generation of a hydrogen molecule ion ( m / z 2) proved to be a good indicator of steady‐state, as the time‐dependent partial pressure of this ion was very sensitive to plasma changes. The individual mass spectra of TVS plasma were presented and only qualitatively discussed by Branecky et al, [ 9 ] but here, the spectra will be subjected to a detailed quantitative analysis. The partial pressure development for individual m / z values at the effective power ranging from 0 to 150 W is shown in Figure 1 using floating columns (min.–max.…”

“…The silicon concentration was approximately constant at 10 at%, but the carbon concentration increased from 48 to 66 at% at the expense of the hydrogen concentration, which decreased from 43 to 24 at% with increased power based on Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and elastic recoil detection analysis of the deposited films. [ 9 ] Indeed, the decrease in the hydrogen concentration in the film can be related to the increased cation production of the hydrogen molecule in the mass spectrometer (Figure 4a). Infrared (IR) spectra with assigned absorption bands for thin films deposited at 2 and 150 W are shown in Figure 4b.…”

“…The discharge in TVS vapor was ignited at an effective power in the range of 2–150 W using a plasma‐on pulse for 1 ms; these conditions were the same as those for the deposition of thin films used in our previous study. [ 9 ] It was found that the above power range resulted in a steady‐state and reproducible plasma suitable for its analysis. These plasma conditions correspond to precursor‐deficient PECVD, where the deposition rate decreases with increasing Yasuda's parameter ( W / FM ) due to the lack of precursor molecules [ 10 ] ; W , F , and M are the power, the precursor flow rate, and the molecular weight, respectively.…”

“…Our recent study [ 9 ] on organosilicon films synthetized in tetravinylsilane (TVS) plasma using precursor‐deficient PECVD [ 10 ] demonstrated a powerful technique capable of controlling the chemical and physical properties of a well‐defined material ranging from a polymer‐like to a tough material, where its physical properties were controlled by variable chemical structures. The nonthermal plasma was governed by the power supplied to the discharge, and Young's modulus of the deposited films could be controlled from 10 to 143 GPa only by changing the chemical structure of the material.…”

The Adhesion of Plasma Nanocoatings Controls the Shear Properties of GF/Polyester Composite

“…Plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) is one of the suitable methods that may be used to prepare plasma nanocoatings. With this method, it is possible to deposit tailored coatings of variable physical and chemical properties by simply changing the deposition conditions, such as the power delivered to the plasma discharge, the process pressure, the precursor flow or the addition of other working (reactive or inert) gases [1][2][3].…”