Abstract
In this work, the plasma was used in the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) technique for modifying the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) surface. The treatments were performed via argon or oxygen, for 10 min, at a frequency of 820 Hz, voltage of 20 kV, 2 mm distance between electrodes, and atmospheric pressure. The efficiency of the plasma was determined through the triple Langmuir probe to check if it had enough energy to promote chemical changes on the material surface. Physicochemical changes were diagnosed through surface characterization techniques such as contact angle, attenuated total reflection to Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), X-ray excited photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Plasma electronics temperature showed that it has enough energy to break or form chemical bonds on the material surface, impacting its wettability directly. The wettability test was performed before and after treatment through the sessile drop, using distilled water, glycerin, and dimethylformamide, to the profile of surface tensions by the Fowkes method, analyzing the contact angle variation. ATR-FTIR and XPS analyses showed that groups and bonds were altered or generated on the surface when compared with the untreated sample. The AFM showed a change in roughness, and this directly affected the increase of wettability.
Highlights
High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is one of the commonly used polymers in industrial, medical, and biomedical applications, as it presents: mechanical properties, flexibility, and high chemical stability [1,2,3,4,5]
The energy values measured by this technique proved to be sufficient in altering the chemical bonds present in the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) chain, as shown in Table 2 [63]
The plasma generated in these treatment conditions has the necessary energy for modifying the polymeric material surface
Summary
High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is one of the commonly used polymers in industrial, medical, and biomedical applications, as it presents: mechanical properties, flexibility, and high chemical stability [1,2,3,4,5]. There was an increase in the number of technologies to superficial modification of materials that sought to increase hardness, wear resistance, adhesion strength, hydrophilicity, biocompatibility, among other materials’ properties [9,10,11,12]. Among these technologies, the treatment of plasma in dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) has been used to increase the surface energy of polymeric. An advantage over other plasma formation techniques is that DBD does not require low pressures, avoiding the use of vacuum systems and the use of high electrical currents, reducing energy consumption, and making it a low-cost process [21,22]
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