AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition
    Plasma Science and Technology Division Thursday Sessions
       Session PS-ThP

Paper PS-ThP4
Comparative Study on Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Modification on Packaging Material using Microwave and DBD Sources

Thursday, November 3, 2011, 6:00 pm, Room East Exhibit Hall

Session: Plasma Science and Technology Poster Session
Presenter: Jungmi Hong, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Authors: J.M. Hong, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Y.L. Wu, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
T.S. Cho, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
D.N. Ruzic, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Correspondent: Click to Email
Atmospheric plasma treatment is a very promising way to get hydrophilic or hydrophobic surface characteristics for many applications. In the food manufacturing industry there have been various kinds of technical approaches for prohibiting oxygen or water vapor penetration into products in order to preserve freshness and prolong shelf life. In this study two different types of atmospheric pressure plasmas, microwave and dielectric barrier discharge, are used on paraffin-wax coated paper. Different process recipes were applied on the packaging material and the surface modification results were evaluated. In the case of the microwave torch, a 10% improvement in hydrophobicity in terms of water contact angle measurement result and relative permeability change for water vapor was measured. The water contact angle was increased to 116±6◦ from 105±7◦ through applying a plasma treatment using a He/N2 mixture. For the permeability, three replications were prepared for each condition and weighed periodically. Each sample was prepared with a cup containing 2.0g of de-ionized water covered with treated or untreated packaging paper. According to its different treatment condition, the water loss of the plasma treated sample was 7-9% less than untreated one. This means the plasma-treated material will do better as a protective barrier against water vapor transmission. With the DBD remote plasma, a highly efficient hydrophilic process was used using nitrogen gas with small amount of air or hydrogen insertion. In order to understand the different surface reaction for the two plasma sources, the surface morphologies of treated samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and chemical properties were evaluated.