Relationship between Real Contact Area and Adhesion Force of Plasma-Treated Rubber Sheets Against Stainless-Steel Ball

Abstract

The adhesion force between a chloride-isobutene-isoprene rubber (CIIR) and stainless steel ball was studied in this paper. In order to decrease the adhesion force, the CIIR rubber was treated with high-density microwave plasma employing oxygen and argon gases. The experimental results showed that the adhesion force decreases with increasing treatment time and microwave power following both oxygen and argon plasma treatments. In addition, optical measurements revealed that the real contact area between a CIIR rubber and quartz plate decreases with decreasing adhesion force. The decreasing trend of the contact area was almost similar to that of the adhesion forces. The field emission scanning electron microscope image showed that the surface roughness generally increases with treatment time and microwave power, implying that roughening of rubber surface by plasma treatment is one of the reasons for the decrease in the adhesion force.