Abstract
The increasing use of polymers is related to a growing disposal problem. Switching to biodegradable polymers such as polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) is a feasible possibility, but after industrial production of commercially available material PBAT is not suitable for every application. Therefore, surface refinements with amorphous hydrogenated carbon films (a-C:H) produced by plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD) changing the top layer characteristics are used. Here, 50 µm-thick PBAT films are coated with a-C:H layers up to 500 nm in 50 nm steps. The top surface sp2/sp3 bonding ratios are analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) both synchrotron-based. In addition, measurements using diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFT) were performed for detailed chemical composition. Surface topography was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the surface wettability by contact angle measurements. With increasing a-C:H layer thickness not only does the topography change but also the sp2 to sp3 ratio, which in combination indicates internal stress-induced phenomena. The results obtained provide a more detailed understanding of the mostly inorganic a-C:H coatings on the biodegradable organic polymer PBAT via in situ growth and stepwise height-dependent analysis.
Highlights
Plastics are being used in many areas of modern life
The application of O2 plasma leads to overall smoothing with only a few particles visible
The results found here only partly correspond to those of amorphous hydrogenated carbon films (a-C):H layers on both biopolymers polylactide acide (PLA)
Summary
Specialized areas of applications are the packaging industry, agriculture and even medical technology. This is made possible by their formability, elasticity, low weight and good chemical resistance [1,2]. Limiting factors of the untreated polymers are their low hardness, low abrasion resistance or poor mechanical properties, which considerably restrict their usability [2]. Another intrinsic problem of common polymers is their poor to impossible compostability and the large amount of waste they generate. This clearly has a negative impact on Materials 2020, 13, 1077; doi:10.3390/ma13051077 www.mdpi.com/journal/materials
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