Infuence of oxygen and nitrogen plasma treatment on polypropyleme (PP) bumper surface

Purpose: The advantage of plasma treatment is that it modifies only the top few nm of the surface, the modification is uniform and it leaves the bulk properties of the material unchanged. Plasma treatment with oxygen or nitrogen plasma provides polar functional groups on the surface, which alters the surface energy of polymer. Design/methodology/approach: Surface activation was made by two different plasma gases at different treatment times. In this work, surface activation of polypropylene (PP) based bumper materials by O2 or N2 plasma was carried out and material surface characteristics after plasma treatment were investigated. The plasma treated surface was studied by contact angle measurements. Originality/value: Plasma activation has many advantages over traditional wet-chemical and physical activation procedures. Surface activation by plasma treatment is exceedingly fast, effective, economical, and environmentally friendly. When the plasma comes into contact with the PP surface it transfers the additional energy from the plasma to allow for subsequent reactions to take place on the material surface.