A S tudy of Plasma Fluorination of Poly (ethylene terephtalate) Film Surfaces

Abstract

The surface fluorination of PET films under low pressure electric discharge was studied. The carbon tetrafluoride gas was used as fluorine source for fluorination in the discharge plasma. The contact angle of the water drop on the polymer surface was measured because it was related to the degree of surface fluorination. When the discharge began, the contact angles increase rapidly and reached 110° or more after a few minutes. The surface products were analysed by ESCA. We concluded that fluorine atoms were interpolated into the polymer molecules as -CF₂-.