Surface Treatment of Polypropylene Film using Cold Cathode Ion Source

Surface Treatment of Polypropylene Film using Cold Cathode Ion Source

The main goal of this work was to examine the structural and optical changes in the Polypropylene (PP) films that treated by argon ion irradiation. This Polypropylene film was treated and modified by using a cold cathode ion source. The irradiation conditions (i.e., exposure time, beam current, and discharge current) were optimized to control the extent of surface modification. Argon ions of 1.5 keV are produced from the cold cathode ion source with an operating gas pressure of 2x10-4 mbar. The functional groups on the surface of samples were examined using FTIR spectrometer. The optical band gap and activation energy of polypropylene (PP) induced by an Ar plasma are determined. It was found that, the optical band gap, calculated from the absorbance spectra, decreased from 5.9 to 4.2 eV.