Effect of electrode geometry on surface modification of polyethylene terephthalate by dielectric barrier discharge produced in air at atmospheric pressure

Abstract

This paper presents the effect of electrode geometry on the surface modification of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as a function of distance using 50 Hz dielectric barrier discharge at atmospheric pressure conditions. The polymer samples were treated with a Gaussian shaped electrode using a 13 kV power supply at line frequency for 1 minute. The results demonstrated that plasma treatment with a Gaussian shaped electrode improves the sample's surface wettability significantly. It is seen that there is a remarkable decrease in contact angle at the center of the sample and a relatively smaller amount of decrement away from the center of the sample.