Effect of micro-scale Young’s modulus and surface roughness on adhesion property to plasma-treated rubber surface

Abstract

Adhesion between rubbers and metals is often the main cause of machine trouble. Therefore, efficient utilization of rubber in dynamic and static applications requires the modification of the adhesion property of the rubber surface without affecting the bulk characteristics. In this work, we have studied the mechanism of the reduction in adhesion force between medical rubber, chloride-isobutene-isoprene rubber (CIIR), and stainless steel by using surface wave-excited plasma treatment of the rubber surface with oxygen and argon gases. Experimental results showed that surface roughness derivations increased by about 10 times across the treatment, at maximum, corresponding to the increase in time. In addition, the micro-scale Young’s modulus of treated CIIR sheet increased by about 6.3 times at maximum from that of the untreated CIIR sheet. These changes in Young’s modulus and roughness at the surface of CIIR sheet are considered to be the main reasons for the plasma-assisted reduction of adhesion force between stainless steel ball (SUS 440C, JIS) and CIIR sheet.