Effect of Low-Pressure Nitrogen DC Plasma Treatment on the Surface Properties of Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene, Poly (Methyl Methacrylate) and Polyvinyl Chloride Films

In this study, commercial biaxially oriented polypropylene （BOPP）, polyvinyl chlo- ride （PVC） and poly （methyl methacrylate） （PMMA） films were treated with nitrogen plasma over different exposure times in a Pyrex tube surrounded by a DC variable magnetic field. The chemi- cal changes that appeared on the surface of the samples were investigated using Fourier transform infrared （FT4R） spectroscopy and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared （ATR- FTIR） spectroscopy after treatment for 2 min, 4 min and 6 rain in a nitrogen plasma chamber. Effects of the plasma treatment on the surface topographies and contact angles of the untreated and plasma treated films were also analyzed by atomic force microscopy （AFM） and a contact angle measuring system. The results show that the plasma treated films become more hydrophilic with an enhanced wettability due to the formation of some new polar groups on the surface of the treated films. Moreover, at higher exposure times, the total surface energy in all treated films increased while a reduction in contact angle occurred. The behavior of surface roughness in each sample was completely different at higher exposure times.

Practicing the concept of “structuring” processing in the manufacture of polymer films

Polymer processing is a technology used to transfer raw materials into products with different shapes and functionalities and is a key step for polymer application.After years of development,the polymer processing task has changed from traditional processing,which mainly addresses the specific shapes of articles and focuses on the effect of processing on the structures and properties of polymers,to modern processing,which directly transforms a“designed structure”into commercial products via processing.It is the so-called“structuring”processing.Owing to the unique long-chain nature and slow topological relaxation,polymers are always driven and frozen into different nonequilibrium conformations,providing an effective way to design a given polymer material with desired structure and tunable performances via processing.Among the endless number of processing techniques,film casting is a prototypical pathway involving high supercooling or/and a strong flow field,based on which diverse thin polymer films have been successfully developed.In this review,taking isotactic polypropylene(i PP)film as an example,we highlight the strategy of“structuring”processing,in which we transform various crystalline structures of i PP into diverse commercial film products.