SUrface modification for adhesion enhancement of PET/silicone using atmospheric plasma-induced grafting

Summary form only given: In the study, an atmospheric-pressure plasma-induced grafting (APPG) has been developed to induce surface modification change on adhesion of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) surface and silicone. The Argon plasma was generated by a RF power under atmospheric-pressure. The most significant feature (APPG) of the process developed in this study was to induce chemical grafting using organosilane vapor (with argon as the precursor carrier gas) simultaneously with the plasma treatment of the surface undergone modification. It was observed from the AFM results that the surface morphology of PET surface, the APPG processing created substantial amount of nanostructure grains with well organized features. Moreover, the measured water contact angles and XPS results showed that the O / Si and C / Si ratios of the PET surface were found to be substantially decreased by APPG processing. However, the PET surface and silicone showed organic and inorganic composition, respectively. It is to be noted that the Si-C and Si-O bond (inorganic) were grafted on the PET surface by APPG processing using organosilane vapor, and the surface contained CH
₃
functional group structure (organic). It was observed from adhesion strength results that the adhesion strengths are much higher in APPG processing using organosilane than that are in APPG processing. The strong adhesion of APPG-treated PET surface s attributed to the strong interaction between the SiCO/CH
₃
functional group of crosslinked on the PET surface and silicone.