Surface morphology study of fluorocarbon macromolecule deposited on polyimide substrates

Plasma treatment and polymerization have been widely applied to modify the surface of polymer materials in the last decades. In this paper, fluorocarbon macromolecules were deposited on polyimide (PI) substrates by R.F. magnetron sputtering with argon gas as plasma, and PTFE as targets. The surface morphology of the deposited substance was observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). It was found that some segregated grains deposited on the PI substrates tended to be finer, more uniformly dispersed and more round with increasing energy. At certain conditions (1 Pa, 400 W, 60 min), quite uniform nanometer sized particles 40–50 nm have been obtained. Fluorocarbon macromolecules were also observed by Atom Force Microscopy (AFM). They have form of round particles with tendency to grow in vertical direction. They are packed closely to each other. The growth mode of fluorocarbon macromolecule is to be one-dimensional island. The experimental results obtained by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) show that in the range of 60 min, the speed of nanometer sized fluorocarbon macromolecule deposition was constant of approximately 10 nm/min.