3.2. Principle of Plasma Application: ⁵

The plasma atmosphere consists of free electrons, radicals, ions, uv-radiations and lot of different excited particles in dependence of the used gas.

 

 

Different reactive species in plasma chamber interact with the substrate surface cleaning, modification or coating occurs dependent of the used parameter. Furthermore the plasma process can be carried out in different manners. The substrate can be treated directly in the plasma zone. The substrate can be positioned outside the plasma; this process is called remote process. The substrate can be achieved in the plasma followed by a subsequent grafting. The substrate can be treated with a polymer solution or gas which will be fixed or polymerized by a subsequent plasma treatment.

3.3. Plasma Equipments: ⁴

Plasma may be generated in the laboratory using non-electrical discharges, e.g. Thermal methods, shock waves, chemical reactions of high specific energy, nuclear radiation or irradiation by high-energy photons, gamma rays or alpha particles. However, for plasma treatment of textiles only electrical-discharge techniques are used.

Plasma is a partially ionized gas containing ions, electrons, atoms and neutral species. To enable the gas to be ionized in a controlled and qualitative manner, the process is carried in vacuum conditions. A vacuum vessel is first pumped down via rotary and roots blowers, sometimes in conjunction with high-vacuum pumps, to a low to medium vacuum pressure in the range of 10-2 to 10-3 mbar. The gas is then introduced into the vessel by means of mass flow controllers and valves. Although many gases can be used, commonly selected gases or mixture of gases for plasma treatment of polymers include oxygen, argon, nitrous oxide, tetrafluoromethane and air.