Abstract
This paper deals with the plasma surface treatment of polymers in a low frequency bell jar reactor with non-symmetrical configuration of electrodes. This special configuration of electrodes simulates the industrial surface treatment of polymers i.e. very short treatment times (milliseconds to a few seconds). The physicochemical properties of different polymers modified in such a reactor using ammonia and its mixtures have been investigated. The industrial aim of such treatments were for adhesion improvement in applications such as metallization and immobilization of proteins for the fabrication of immunosensors. The last part of this paper was devoted to the study of the stability of the plasma modified polymers which is an important issue for the industrial development of plasma processes. A pretreatment in a noble gas such as helium was proposed in order to stabilize the extreme surface layer via crosslinking before the functionalization treatment in ammonia plasma. In order to carry out the crosslinking and functionalization process in a one step process, mixtures of He+NH3 plasmas were studied.
