Applied Surface Science, Vol.292, 782-789, 2014
Texturation and superhydrophobicity of polyethylene terephthalate thanks to plasma technology
Anti-bioadhesive surfaces were designed from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) by three steps plasma-treatment. First, the nano-pattern is created by oxygen plasma-treatment with controlled dimensions. Then, the plasma-treated polymeric surface was hydrophobized with a tetrafluorocarbon plasma, allowing to obtain a water contact angle of 145 +/- 4 degrees. However, the SEM pictures give evidence to show the degradation of the structuration caused by the CF4-plasma and consequently, the superhydrophobicity was not reached. Thus, a plasma-polypyrrole layer was deposited before the plasma-fluorination, which has a protective role against the degradation generated by fluorinated species, preserving the structuration and improving the fluorination rate. Therefore, the obtained surfaces are superhydrophobic with water contact angle of 157 +/- 2 degrees and a hysteresis of 65 +/- 3 degrees. The ability of these surfaces to reduce bioadhesion will be performed in further work. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Superhydrophobicity;Texturation;Nanofiber;Plasma polymerization;Plasma fluorination;Plasma oxidation