Plasma polymers with chemically defined structures in contact with metals

The retention of chemical structure and functional groups during plasma polymerization was investigated. Usually plasma polymer layers, prepared by a continuous wave radio-frequency plasma, are often chemically irregular in their structure and composition. To minimize these irregularities low wattages and the pulsed plasma technique were applied to avoid fragmentations. The first goal was to produce plasma polymers comprising double or triple bonds as precursors for electrically conducting polymers. Acetylene, ethylene, butadiene and polystyrene were used as monomers and deposited as thin polymer films by pulsed plasmas of low wattages. Styrene polymerization was strongly enhanced in the dark phase (plasma off) of a pulsed r.f. plasma caused by the reactivity of the vinyl-type double bond. This could be confirmed by a verification of a rather high chemical regularity of the film sample. The oxygen content of this film measured by X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS) was in situ 0% and after 24 h exposure to air lower than 1%. Additionally, post-plasma oxidations of trapped radicals with air could be suppressed using NO gas as radical quencher. Such quenched plasma polymer layers were completely stable against oxidation for a number of weeks. During the low-wattage pulse plasma polymerization metal atoms were simultaneously or layer by layer evaporated into the growing layer and in situ measured by XPS. These metal atoms are acting as dopants. Here, Li, K, Mg and Cr were used at different concentrations providing electrical conductivity and magnetic properties for the film.