Wettability and optical properties of O2 and CF4 plasma treated biaxially oriented semicrystalline poly(ethylene terephthalate) films

Influence of low pressure O2, CF4, and successive O2 and CF4 RF plasma treatment on optical properties and wettability of biaxially oriented semicrystalline poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) was examined. Produced by industrial stretch-blow molding PET films of the 300 μm thickness were chosen for the experiments. Influence of the aging was also investigated by storing plasma treated samples at room conditions for 60 days. It was revealed that O2 plasma treated samples suffered from the hydrophobic recovery and long term improvement of hydrophilicity was only a moderate. Energetic CF4 plasma treatment was able to form a large number of surface active sites which in turn was capable to attach the oxygen containing groups and to increase the hydrophilicity. However, aged for 10–60 days CF4 plasma treated PET films have showed a large scattering of the contact angle values measured on the same surface. Successive O2 and CF4 plasma treatment, despite induced hydrophobicity of as treated films, after 3 days of aging have resulted in highly homogeneous hydrophilic (Θ ≈ 20°) surfaces which have retained their hydrophilicity for the entire period of investigation. Moreover, combined plasma treatment of PET films has not influenced significantly the transmission of visible light. So, such a treatment can be considered as beneficial for the production of highly homogeneous hydrophilic surfaces without significant influence on their optical properties.