Organo-silicon coating deposition on polyethylene films by pulsed dielectric-barrier discharges

Abstract

Organo-silicon coatings deposition from tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) was conducted in pulsed dielectric barrier discharge (PDBD) for packaging polyethylene (PE) films tightening. A laboratory reactor was tested provided with a rotating cylindrical internal electrode bearing the PE film and with a dielectric barrier in the form of a cylindrical glass body was tested. The oxygen permeability of the films was examined after plasma treatment with different gases: He (I), TEOS+He (II), TEOS+He+ 5% O2 (III), TEOS+He+10% O2 (IV). For the film surface topography observations, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used. The coating composition was examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with argon ion sputtering for the determination of individual element contents across the coating. It was found that under PDBD conditions both the treatment in helium plasma and the coating deposition from different TEOS+carrier-gas mixtures reduced the oxygen permeability of PE films.