Fluorocarbon Coatings Via Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl Acrylate-1, Spectroscopic Characterization by FT-IR and XPS

Abstract

Plasma polymerized fluorocarbon coatings were deposited on Thermanox coverslips and silicon wafers via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl acrylate (PFDA) monomer precursor in a low pressure inductively excited RF plasma, using argon as a carrier gas. PFDA coatings were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. The influence of plasma deposition parameters, such as precursor flow, deposition time, continuous wave (CW) and pulse modulated (PM) plasma mode, plasma power and plasma duty cycle (DC) on chemical composition of PFDA coatings was investigated. PFDA coatings with varying chemical compositions have been prepared at different plasma operating conditions. PM plasma mode, lower power, and lower DC plasma conditions yielded PFDA coatings with better chemical retention of precursor molecule, which was manifested by higher F/C ratio and CF2 group concentration, and lower CF/OCO concentration in PFDA coating under these conditions.