DBD treatment of polyethylene terephthalate: Atmospheric versus medium pressure treatment

In this paper, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) films are modified by a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) in a helium/air mixture at medium (6.6 kPa) and atmospheric pressure. Surface analysis and characterization of the plasma-treated PET films is performed using contact angle measurements, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The polymer films, modified with the DBD at medium and atmospheric pressure, show a significant decrease in water contact angle due to the incorporation of oxygen-containing groups, such as C–O and O–C=O. Results also show that the surface treatment is uniform at micron scales, despite the fact that the discharge consists of a series of microdischarges. It is shown that at low energy densities (< ± 200 mJ/cm2), plasma treatment at medium pressure is more energy-efficient in incorporating oxygen functionalities than plasma treatment at atmospheric pressure. This effect could be induced by the larger diameter of the microdischarges at medium pressure than at atmospheric pressure (factor 3.92) and/or by the lower quenching of atomic oxygen in three-body collisions at medium pressure. The ageing behaviour of the plasma-treated PET films during storage in air is also studied in this paper. XPS results reveal that during the ageing process the induced oxygen-containing groups re-orientate into the bulk of the material. In this paper, it is shown that the ageing behaviour of the PET films is independent of the operating pressure used during plasma treatment.