Influence of environmental moisture on atmospheric pressure plasma jet treatment of ultrahigh-modulus polyethylene fibers

Abstract

One of the main differences between low-pressure and atmospheric-pressure plasma treatments is that there is little moisture involved in the low-pressure plasma treatment, although moisture could exist at the wall of the vacuum chamber or react with the substrate after plasma treatment, while in the atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment moisture exists not only in the environment but also in any hygroscopic substrate. In order to investigate the influence of environmental moisture on the effect of atmospheric pressure plasma treatment, ultra-high-modulus polyethylene (UHMPE) fibers were treated using an atmospheric-pressure plasma jet (APPJ) with 10 l/min helium gas-flow rate, treatment nozzle temperature of 100°C and 5 W output power. The plasma treatments were carried out at three different relative humidity levels, namely 5, 59 and 100%. After the plasma treatments, the surface roughness increased while the water-contact angle decreased with increasing relative humidity. The number of oxygen containing groups increased as the environmental moisture content increased. The interfacial shear strength of the UHMPE fiber/epoxy system was significantly increased after the plasma treatments, but the moisture level in the APPJ environment did not have a significant influence on the adhesion properties. In addition, no significant difference in single fiber tensile strength was observed after the plasma treatments at all moisture levels. Therefore, it was concluded that the environmental moisture did not significantly influence the effect of atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment in improving interfacial bonding between the fiber and epoxy. The improvement of the interfacial shear strength for the plasma-treated samples at all moisture levels was mainly due to the increased surface roughness and increased surface oxygen and nitrogen contents due to the plasma etching and surface modification effect.