Surface modification of polycarbonate by plasma treatment

Abstract

The surfaces of polycarbonate films were treated by nitrogen plasma, in order to understand the effect of low energy ions on the surface modification of polycarbonate. The modified samples were characterized by micro-hardness tester, optical micrograph/atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and FTIR spectroscopy. It was observed that the hardness of the film increases as fluence increases. This may be attributed to the cross-linking effect as corroborated with FTIR spectra. XPS analysis indicates that chemical bonding on the surface of the film, especially C=O, C-O and C-C/C-H functional groups, was found to change due to plasma treatment. AFM analysis reveals that average surface roughness increases from 5.9 nm to 42.7 nm as fluence increases.