Development of Heat-assisted Plasma Treatment for DrasticImprovement in Adhesion Property of Fluoropolymers

Abstract

Fluoropolymers have several excellent properties, but their low adhesion properties are only onedisadvantage. Surface modification of fluoropolymers is essential for adhesion between fluoropolymers andother types of materials. Although conventional plasma treatment is not enough to adhere fluoropolymers toother types of materials, we found out that heating during plasma treatment has extremely positive effect onimprovement in adhesion property of fluoropolymers. At the time, we controlled the surface temperature offluoropolymers via the applied power density for plasma generation. Considering about expansion of plasmaarea for high throughput, the cost of remodeling becomes much higher with increasing the size of a plasmatreatment equipment. Therefore, we considered to use a heater for controlling the surface temperature duringplasma treatment. We successfully demonstrated that heat-assisted plasma treatment using a heater alsodrastically improved the adhesion property of fluoropolymers. The key points for strong adhesion were notonly generation of oxygen-containing functional groups but also surface hardening.