Filtern
Erscheinungsjahr
Dokumenttyp
- Zeitschriftenartikel (18) (entfernen)
Schlagworte
- Electrospray deposition (3)
- Plasma polymerization (3)
- ESCA/XPS (2)
- NEXAFS (2)
- Plasma (2)
- Underwater plasma (2)
- Adhesion-promoting layers (1)
- Aggregation (1)
- Arrays (1)
- Beschichtung, organisch (1)
Dünne, mit einem gepulsten Plasma hergestellte Polymerschichten wurden untersucht. Diese Plasmapolymere sollten eine chemisch besser definierte Struktur haben, weil der Anteil an rein chemisch polymerisiertem Produkt während der Plasma-aus-Zeit steigen sollte, während der Anteil an Schichtbildung, der innerhalb der kurzen Plasmapulse durch Monomerfragmentierung und statistische Polyrekombination erzeugt wird, zurückgedrängt wird. Der Monomerfragmentierungsprozeß ist im kontinuierlich brennenden Plasma (cw-Mode) demgegenüber der Hauptprozeß. Neben der Anwendung der klassischen Element- und Bindungsanalysentechnik XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy) wurden hier die Schichten auch mittels Thermolumineszenz untersucht. Defekte und Strukturanomalitäten in Polymeren sollten mit dieser Methode charakterisiert werden können. Untersuchungsobjekte waren funktionalgruppentragende Plasmapolymerschichten, die biosensorische oder biokompatible Funktionen besitzen oder als Haftvermittler in Metall-Polymercompositen eingesetzt werden.
Translated Abstract
Characterization of Plasmapolymers by Thermoluminescence
Thin plasma polymer films were deposited using the pulsed plasma (pp) mode. These plasma polymers should possess a more chemically regular structure because of the lower monomer fragmentation during the short plasma pulses and the chemical chain propagation during the plasma-less periods than those produced by the conventional continuous-wave (cw) mode. In addition to the use of the classic thin film characterization method XPS the method of thermoluminescence was applied to characterize defects and structural specifics in the polymer films produced by pp or cw-plasma mode. The thermoluminescence method was applied to functional groups-carrying plasma polymer layers, which are used in medical technology for forming biocompatible and bioactive coatings or in metal-polymer composites as adhesion-promoting interlayers.
Chemical properties of plasma-polymerized styrene films can be effectively controlled by the appropriate choice of external plasma parameters, such as duty cycle, power and monomer pressure. Chemical properties here are the regularity of the primary structure, the amount of long living radicals and branching or cross-linking or both in plasma polymerized styrene films, which can be indirectly monitored by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. Principally, XPS and NEXAFS spectra of plasma-polymerized styrene show all the spectroscopic fingerprints characteristic of atactic polystyrene indicating an inherent similarity of the respective primary chemical structures. There is an increase in irregularity and radical concentration for the plasma deposited films with increasing duty cycle or power. With an increase in monomer pressure, a decreased level of monomer fragmentation and, consequently, an increase in regularity must be concluded from the experimental data. The applied power regulates the fragmentation of the monomers as monitored by spectroscopic signals correlated to the aromatic rings. A trend in the extent of the post-plasma oxygen incorporation according to the variation of the various external plasma parameters was deduced, which agrees with earlier ToF-SIMS findings
XPS and NEXAFS spectroscopy were used for the chemical characterization of pulsed plasma-deposited ethylene films before and after exposure to ambient air. The influence of external plasma parameters on the spectroscopic results was investigated. Information on the chemical character of the plasma-polymerized films, such as the regularity of the primary structure, the amount of long-living radicals, and branching or cross-linking or both was derived from this data. Irregularity and radical concentration for post-plasma reactions of the plasma-deposited films increased with the duty cycle or power. A decreased level of monomer fragmentation and, consequently, an increase in regularity is partially concluded from the experimental data when the monomer pressure is increased. The concentration of surface radicals available for post-plasma reactions also increased with monomer pressure. The correlation found between the degree of the post-plasma oxygen incorporation and the variation of the various external parameters agreed with earlier ToF-SSIMS findings.
Thin plasma polymer films were deposited using the pulsed plasma mode. These plasma polymers should possess a more regular structure than those produced by the conventional continuous-wave (cw) mode, because of lower monomer fragmentation caused by the plasma pulses and the chemical chain propagation during the plasmaless (free!) periods. The thermoluminescence method was applied to functional groups carrying plasma polymer layers which are used in medical technology. Examples are formation of biocompatible, biosensoric and bioactive coatings or in metal polymer composites such as adhesion-promoting interlayers.
In addition to the use of the conventional X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy for thin film characterization, the new method of thermoluminescence was applied to characterize undesired defects and structural specifics produced in the polymer films by pp or cw plasma mode. The main areas of focus were oxygen-containing groups produced by post-plasma oxygen introduction via auto-oxidation, oxidation of implemented unsaturations and trapped radical sites known as typical irregular structures in plasma polymers.
The production of chemically-defined plasma polymers and the introduction of monotype functional groups onto polymer surfaces are described. One method is to lower the energetic level of low-pressure plasmas. Pressure- and plasma-pulsed plasmas were successfully tested for the production of chemically-defined plasma polymers by increasing the monomer supply during the plasma-off period. Well-defined ultra-thin polymer films with regular structure were deposited from atmospheric plasmas by electrospray techniques. Post-plasma wet-chemical processing was also applied, as were gas/liquid-based aerosols and underwater plasmas.
Underwater plasma and glow discharge electrolysis are interesting new methods for polymer surface functionalization. The achievable content of O-containing functional groups exceeds that of oxygen glow discharge gas plasmas by a factor of two (up to ca. 56 O/100 C). The percentage of OH groups among all O-containing groups can reach 25 to 40%, whereas it is about 10% in the gas plasmas. Addition of hydrogen peroxide increases the fraction of OH groups to at most 70% (27 OH/100 C). The liquid plasma systems are also able to polymerize acrylic acid and deposit the polymer as very thin film on substrate surfaces or membranes, thereby retaining about 80% of all COOH functional groups (27 COOH/100 C).
Polyolefins are chemically inert and do not adhere well to metals, polymers or inorganics. To overcome this problem, polyolefin surfaces were modified thermally, plasmachemically, or by flame treatment with different oxygen-containing groups, however, unfortunately, such treatments were accompanied by undesired, adhesion lowering polymer degradation. To solve this dilemma, solutions of synthetic polymers and copolymers were prepared, sprayed into the barrier discharge or electrosprayed without discharge and deposited as thin adhesion-promoting layers. The deposited polymer layers from poly(vinylamine), poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(vinyl alcohol) copolymers and poly(acrylic acid) were endowed with monotype functional groups. Using the aerosol - dielectric barrier discharge only a fraction of functional groups survived the deposition process in contrast to the electrospray in which all functional groups were retained.