The plasma source ion implantation technique has been used to improve the wetting property of polymer surfaces. The modified polymer surfaces were evaluated with a contact angle meter to note the change of water contact angles and their variations with time. The oxygen-implanted samples showed extremely low water contact angles of 3° compared with 79° of unimplanted ones. Furthermore, the modified surfaces were relatively stable with respect to aging under ambient conditions. Time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry(TOF-SIMS) and scanning auger electron spectroscopy were used to analyze the implanted surfaces. From TOF-SIMS analysis it was found that oxygen-containing functional groups had been formed on the implanted surfaces. On the other hand, the CF4-implanted samples turned out to be more hydrophobic than unimplanted ones, giving water contact angles exceeding 100°. The experiments showed that plasma source ion implantation is a very promising technique for polymer surface modification, especially for large area treatment.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0257-8972(97)00057-1