Rapid surface treatment of polyamide 12 by microwave plasma jet

Abstract

The effects of amplitude modulation (AM) on an atmospheric pressure microwave argon jet is investigated using time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy, passive acoustic diagnostic and digital camera imaging. These techniques show significant changes of the effluent plasma properties with varying AM frequency. Operation in AM mode can enhance the plasma jet length or width over continuous-wave mode with the same mean power, which could be advantageous in many practical applications of plasma jets.

Time resolved optical emission spectroscopy in power modulated atmospheric pressure plasma jet

“…The application potential of such design was tested in other works [8,14,15]. The paper continues in the direction of our previous work [16], where the pure argon discharge was investigated, by adding a nitrogen admixture to the argon gas.…”

Surface modification of the laser sintering standard powder polyamide 12 by plasma treatments

“…LS‐PA12 parts with many other polymers have also restricted applications where adhesive bonding of polymers with other materials, wettability, or printability are required, due to their poor hydrophilic properties . PA12 powder tends to have the lowest swelling and solubility in polar solvents like water due to its longer methylene chain and strong hydrogen bonds between the amide groups of the PA12 .…”

“…Plasma‐ a reactive medium containing free electrons, excited and ionized atoms and molecules, radicals, and metastables and VIS‐UV radiation is widely applied also for chemically modification of polymer surfaces, e.g., ultrafine cleaning, functionalization, etching, or thin film deposition . Atmospheric pressure plasma jets are used to improve the wettability and adhesion, as is low pressure plasma . Both of these techniques are investigated in this work, although the plasma jet, can be expected to have an advantage that it is more economical than the low pressure ones requiring a vacuum chamber .…”

Spatially resolved spectroscopy of an atmospheric pressure microwave plasma jet used for surface treatment

“…We have previously published studies of treatment of heat-sensitive materials like wood and polyamide [13,28], when this limit was overcome by placing the sample only at the very end of the plasma flame and setting a very high flow of cooling air, which helped to preserve the sample. However, the higher energy carried by plasma and the significantly higher amount of active species in the middle of the flame indicate the possibility of more effective treatment in this area.…”

“…Plasma jets are suitable if localised plasma treatment or plasma treatment of rough or structured surfaces is needed [9,10]. Using a microwave APPJ (atmospheric pressure plasma jet) surfatron [11] it was shown [12,13] that thanks to generally higher power density, surface activation can be achieved on very short time scales. This makes plasma jets possibly competitive to DBDs even for large area processing.…”