We would like to share with you our latest infographic ‘Plasma Treatment Explained’.
Plasma treatment in Battery Technology is fast becoming an industry standard with applications such as cleaning, wire bonding, friction coatings and improving adhesion prior to processing. If you would like to visit the event please follow this link Battery Tech Expo 2023 or to learn more about plasma treatment for the battery industry contact us today.
- What is Plasma?
States of matter
Solid, liquid and gas are the three states of matter we are all familiar with. We can move between the states by adding or removing energy (e.g., heating/cooling). If we continue to add enough energy, gas molecules will become ionised (lose one or more electrons) and so carry a net positive charge. If enough molecules are ionised to affect the overall electrical characteristics of the gas the result is called a plasma. Plasmas are referred to as the fourth state of matter.A plasma contains positive ions, electrons, neutral gas atoms or molecules, UV light and also excited gas atoms and molecules, which can carry a large amount of internal energy (plasmas glow because light is emitted as these excited neutral particles relax to a lower energy state). All of these species can and do interact with any surface placed in contact with the plasma. By choosing the gas mixture, power, pressure etc. we can quite precisely tune, or specify, the effects of the plasma upon the surface.
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Steps in the Plasma Treatment Process
Plasma treatments are performed in an evacuated enclosure, or chamber. The air is pumped out and a gas is allowed to flow in at low pressure before energy in the form of electrical power is applied. It’s important to note that these types of plasmas are low temperature, meaning that heat sensitive materials can be processed quite readily. -
Plasma Cleaning
Plasma cleaning eliminates natural and technical oils & grease at the nano-scale & reduces contamination up to 6-fold when compared with traditional wet cleaning methods. Plasma cleaning produces a pristine surface, ready for bonding or further processing, without any harmful waste material.
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Surface Activation
Many polymers, in particular polyolefins such as polyethylene and polypropylene, are chemically inert and cannot bond easily to other materials, displaying poor adhesion with inks, paint and glues. The reason for this is the absence of polar (oxygen containing) molecules in their surface structure. Plasma surface activation is effective at altering the surface of a polymer by the attachment of polar molecules. -
Plasma Etching
Plasma surface etching is a type of plasma treatment used to increase the surface area of a material on the microscopic scale. The surface of the component is etched
with a reactive process gas. Material from the surface is converted to the gas phase and removed by the vacuum system. The surface area is greatly increased, raising the surface energy, and making the material easily wettable. Plasma surface etching is particularly useful for processing of fluoropolymers (e.g., POM & PTFE). -
& 7. Functional Nanocoatings
Plasma polymerisation produces a covalently bonded nano-scale polymer layer over the entire surface area of an object placed in the plasma. The coating produced is typically less than 1/100th thickness of a human hair, colourless, odourless and doesn’t affect the look or feel of the material in any way. Different precursors produce different functional groups on the surface which results in tailored properties such as; Liquid (water & oil) repellency (hydrophobic/oleophobic), wettability (hydrophilic) and also biocompatibility.
