Comparison between XPS‐ and FTIR‐analysis of plasma‐treated polypropylene film surfaces

TLDR

Plasma treatment is widely used to modify polymer film surfaces, offering advantages over conventional methods. The study aims to plasma‑treat polypropylene films with a dielectric barrier discharge at 5 kPa and to investigate chemical derivatization for quantitative ATR‑FTIR analysis. The plasma‑treated films were characterized by contact‑angle measurements, XPS, and ATR‑FTIR spectroscopy. Plasma treatment reduced the contact angle by introducing oxygen‑containing groups (C=O, C–O, O=C–O), which were identified by XPS and ATR‑FTIR; XPS provided quantitative analysis while ATR‑FTIR remained qualitative. © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

Abstract Plasma treatment is often used to modify the surface properties of polymer films, since it offers numerous advantages over the conventional surface modification techniques. In this paper, a polypropylene (PP) film is plasma‐treated using a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) operating in air at medium pressure (5.0 kPa). The modified polymer films are characterized using contact angle measurements, XPS‐analysis and attenuated total reflectance‐Fourier transform infrared (ATR‐FTIR) spectroscopy. Results show that plasma treatment leads to a remarkable decrease in contact angle owing to the implantation of oxygen‐containing functional groups. Using XPS and ATR‐FTIR, these oxygen‐containing groups can be identified as CO, CO and OCO. In this paper, it is also shown that XPS is well‐suited to provide quantitative chemical analysis of the PP films, while ATR‐FTIR can only give qualitative information. To perform quantitative ATR‐FTIR measurements, chemical derivatization will be explored in the near future. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.