Surface Treatment of Polypropylene Powders Using a Plasma Reactor with a Stirrer

A radio frequency argon plasma reactor with a stirrer was employed for the surface treatment of polypropylene (PP) powders. The changes in the superficial contact angle and the superficial composition of the un-treated and treated PP powders were analyzed by means of water contact angle (WCA) measurement, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The water contact angle changed from the original value of 130.2° before plasma treatment to the value of 73.6° after treatment for 5 minutes. With the increase in plasma treating time, there were a decrease in the water contact angle and an increase in the content of oxygen containing polar functional groups (i.e., C-O, C=O and O-C=O). Both XPS and ATR-FTIR results indicated that the plasma treatment led to the formation of oxygen containing polar functional groups due to oxidation on the surface of the PP powders, and the trend of variation of the water contact angle with plasma treating time was related to the concentration of oxygen atom on the treated PP powders surface. Furthermore, the aging of the plasma-treated PP powders was investigated.