Plasma treatment of polymethyl methacrylate to improve surface hydrophilicity and antifouling performance

• Published in: Polymer engineering and science Vol. 61; no. 2; pp. 506 - 513
• Main Authors: Sui, Siyuan, Li, Lin, Shen, Jie, Ni, Guohua, Xie, Hongbin, Lin, Qifu, Zhao, Yanjun, Guo, Jingwei, Duan, Wenxue
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.02.2021; Society of Plastics Engineers, Inc; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Adsorption; Antifouling; Atomic force microscopy; Chemical properties; Contact angle; Functional groups; High temperature plasmas; Hydrophilicity; low pressure; Mechanical properties; O2/CF4 plasma; Oxygen content; Photoelectrons; Plasma (Ionized gases); Plasma etching; Plasma physics; Polymethyl methacrylate; Polymethylmethacrylate; Protein adsorption; Staphylococcus aureus; surface modification; X-ray spectroscopy; China
• ISSN: 0032-3888; 1548-2634
• DOI: 10.1002/pen.25595

Surface modification of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) by O2/CF4 plasma is investigated to improve hydrophilicity and antifouling performance of PMMA. The PMMA surface before and after treatment is characterized by atomic force microscopy, contact angle measurement, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Antifouling properties are evaluated by protein adsorption and bacterial adhesion experiments using Staphylococcus aureus in vitro. Higher O2 content in the mixture gas promotes hydrophilicity of the plasma‐treated PMMA, while a hydrophobic surface forms at higher CF4 content. Modifying PMMA improves antifouling performance regardless of the O2/CF4 volume ratio, and this improvement increases with rising CF4 content in O2/CF4 plasma working gas. Functional groups CO and CF are detected in O2/CF4 plasma‐treated PMMA surface and the ratio of CO to CF can be controlled by the O2/CF4 volume ratio in the plasma working gas.