Surface modification of polymers by ion-assisted reaction

This paper deals with a new surface modification technique of polymers, the so-called ion-assisted reaction (IAR) to improve the surface properties of polymers and provides outstanding experimental results regarding wettability and adhesion of various polymers. In the IAR, polymer surfaces were subjected to low energy ion irradiation at different dosage in reactive gas environment. Dramatic improvements in wettability and surface energy are observed for the IAR-treated polymer surfaces and can be explained by the addition of functional groups, responsible for the increase of polar component in surface energy. The formation of functional groups results from the interaction among ion, reactive gas and polymer chain involved in IAR treatment, depending on the reactive ion species, the flow rate of the reactive gas and the irradiating ion fluence. The improvement in adhesion between the IAR-treated polymers and coating materials was explained in terms of the increased surface energy as well as surface roughness in the polymers modified by the IAR and possible adhesion enhancement mechanism is to be discussed. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.