Surface oxidation and enhanced hydrophilization of polyamide fiber surface after he / ar atmospheric pressure plasma exposure

摘要

Due to their bulk and surface properties the polymeric fibers are used for various applications as surgery, textile industry and many others. In the present paper the surface modification, wettability and chemical composition of polyamide 6 fibers, after direct atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge treatment, in helium and argon, are studied. The contact angle method, atomic force microscopy technique and X-ray photoelectrons spectroscopy were used to investigate plasma induced modifications of polyamide surface. Increased hydrophilic properties of plasma-treated surfaces were proofed by static water contact angle measurement, with values up to 70% lower than pristine polymer. It was found that the surface roughness increases up to 3 times after helium plasma treatment and 2 times after argon plasma treatment, for up to 7 days. Surface oxidation, after plasma exposure, was observed through X-ray photoelectrons spectroscopy. These experimental findings, proven by the good correlation of the obtained results from both plasma diagnosis and polymeric surface characterization, underline the usage of plasma sources for polymeric surface processing.