Fluorine Plasma Treatments of Polypropylene Films, 1 – Surface Characterization

In this work, an experimental investigation of fluorine gas (F2) plasma treatment of polypropylene (PP) film reveals the evolution of PP fluorination. Surface analysis of fluorinated PP surfaces describes a surface modification process that is initially quite rapid but slows sharply as the fluorination progresses. The fluorination reaction occurs more rapidly at the PP film surface and evidence of a treatment gradient is seen in the ESCA sampling depth of 10 nm. The increasingly fluorinated surface becomes less reactive to the plasma chemistry and develops a fully fluorinated, cross‐linked surface layer that eventually extends the full ESCA sampling depth. magnified image