Creation of Super-Hydrophilic Surface of Polytetrafluoroethylene Using Ammonia-Water Vapor Plasma

Abstract

According to the Wenzel model, the wetting properties can be tuned by controlling the two factors, the surface energy and the surface roughness. Evaluating the chemical and/or physical characteristics of PTFE surfaces before and after plasma treatment using XPS and FE-SEM, and radical species in plasma using OES cleared that an Ar/NH₃-H₂O plasma could provide that tuning, simultaneously generating a hydrophilic chemical structure and effective morphological roughness on PTFE surfaces and thus readily changing the highly hydrophobic surface to super hydrophilic.