Surface processing of materials with fluorocarbon fed atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharges

Abstract

Nowadays, atmospheric pressure cold plasmas, particularly in dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) configuration, attract significant interest in the field of surface processing of materials. Fluorocarbon containing DBDs have also been studied, but the state of the art in this field is at its early stages, especially if compared to low pressure plasmas, which have been widely and successfully employed for the etching of inorganic and organic materials, for the deposition of fluoropolymers as well as for the treatment of synthetic and natural polymers. This contribution will provide an overview of our recent studies on fluorocarbon containing DBDs and will present results on the deposition of fluoropolymers concerning the tuning of the chemical composition of the deposits, the etching–deposition competition and the influence of feed gas contaminants (i.e. air and water vapour).

Keywords:

• Atmospheric pressure cold plasma
• Dielectric barrier discharge
• Fluorocarbon
• Fluoropolymers
• Plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition

The author would like to express her deepest gratitude to Professor R. d’Agostino and Professor F. Fracassi (University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy) for the guidance and the many inspiring and valuable discussions. The author gratefully acknowledges also Mr S. Cosmai for the technical assistance. This research has received financial support from Regione Puglia (‘Accordo di programma quadro ricerca scientifica, II atto integrativo’, project n. 51 ‘LIPP’).