Surface Characterization of Oxygen Plasma Treated Nano-SiO<sub>2</sub> Sol-Gel Coating UHMWPE Filaments

作者：Ying Chen Zhang, Feng Jun Shi, Jian He, Hong Yan Wu, Yi Ping Qiu · 发表于：Materials science forum · 年份：2010 · DOI：10.4028/www.scientific.net/msf.658.117 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Surface Modification and Superhydrophobicity、Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research、Electrospun Nanofibers in Biomedical Applications

UHMWPE filaments have a low surface free energy and therefore often require a modification of their surface properties before any use. Atmospheric pressure plasmas treatment is a convenient and environmentally friendly way to obtain these modifications by introducing new chemical groups at the surface without affecting the bulk properties. This paper studies the influence of nano-SiO2 sol-gel coating pretreatment on atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) treatment of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibers when a mixture of 100% helium and 1% oxygen used as the treatment gas. The surface properties of the plasma-treated UHMWPE filaments are characterized using contact angle measurements and ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. The UHMWPE filaments show a remarkable increase in surface free energy after plasma treatment. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy of the plasma-treated UHMWPE filaments reveals that plasma treatment introduces oxygen-containing functionalities on the UHMWPE filaments surface leading to the increased surface free energy.