Plasma activation for surface activation and modification

If surfaces have to be varnished, printed or glued, they require good wettability of the surface for good adhesion. Many surfaces show insufficient wettability even in a clean state, which is intensified by impurities. As a result, liquids like adhesives and inks roll off. This is because the surface tension is very low and insufficient for further processing. If unprocessed material is processed, the result is often that paint and varnish do not adhere properly and quickly come loose again or that bonded parts fall apart. This can be prevented with plasma activation and surface modification.

Plasmaactivation for creating molecule layers on the surface

Plasma activation of a surface increases its surface energy and creates molecular anchor groups that correlate with those of the liquid. This manifests itself through improved wetting and leads to an optimized adhesion of suitable liquids.

Practical example: Plasma activation of polyphenylene sulfide

In the example, two polyphenylene sulfide components were treated with atmospheric pressure plasma from the plasmabrush PB3 system.

Untreated PPS components cannot be wetted with a test ink of 40 mN/m.

After plasma treatment, the component is completely wetted with a test ink of 60 mN/m.

Suitable materials

The following materials can be plasma activated:

Plastics

Oberflächenbehandlung von Kunststoffe — Most common plastics are suitable for surface treatment and ultra-fine cleaning.

Metals

Oberflächenbehandlung von Metalle mit atmosphärischem Plasma — Surface treatment of metals is carried out with atmospheric plasma technology from relyon plasma, for cleaning, oxide reduction and pre-treatment.

Anorganic Materials

Plasmabehandlung von anorganischen Materialien — Plasma treatment of inorganic materials such as glass, stone or ceramics can significantly increase the surface energies.

Plastics >>

Metals >>

Anorganic materials >>

Furthermore, plasma treatment of natural leather, artificial leather, natural fibre, wood or paper is also possible.

Advantages of plasma activation

High process speed and reliability
No running costs
Environmentally friendly treatment without additional chemicals
Easy inline integration and automation

Technical articles on the topic

Grounding of conductive substrates

When using PAA® technology, the ignited plasma bridge can be used for electrical grounding of conductive substrates.

Plasmacleaning – Article magazin “JOT”

Paint stripping and cleaning with plasma is possible with the high performance system plasmabrush® PB3 of relyon plasma.

Indirekte Behandlung von HNC-Zellstrukturen in unterschiedlichen Medien

Plasma-Oncology: Adjuvant therapy for head and neck cancer using cold atmospheric plasma

Summary of an interesting publication on basic research on the possible use of plasma as an adjuvant therapy for head and neck carcinomas.

Effects of Plasma Treatment on the Bioactivity of Implants

Effects of Plasma Treatment on the Bioactivity of Zirconia Implants

Takao et al. investigate in vivo and in vitro the effects of plasma treatment on the bioactivity of zirconia/alumina nanocomposites (NANOZR) used as implant materials.

The shapes of the activation area visualized by the 58 mN/m test ink on the HDPE substrate for configurations A, C and G. The sizes of the substrates seen in pictures for A and C are 50 mm × 50 mm. The treatment times are 100 ms, 3 s, 10 s, 1 s and 20 s for A1, A2, C1, C2, and G1−3 respectively.

Visualization of Activated Area on Polymers

A visualization of activated area on polymers is done with test ink to evaluate atmospheric pressure plasma jets (APPJ). The shrinkage characteristics of the test ink are collected using activation image recording (AIR).