AVS 47th International Symposium
    Surface Engineering Tuesday Sessions
       Session SE-TuA

Paper SE-TuA10
An XPS Investigation into the Role of Oxygen in the Structural Formation of Methylated Silane Plasma Polymers

Tuesday, October 3, 2000, 5:00 pm, Room 201

Session: Surface Engineering: Surface Preparation to Postcoating Surface Finishing
Presenter: C.E. Moffitt, University of Missouri, Kansas City
Authors: C.E. Moffitt, University of Missouri, Kansas City
D.M. Wieliczka, University of Missouri, Kansas City
T.M. El-Agez, Islamic University of Gaza, Palestine
Q.S. Yu, University of Missouri, Columbia
C.M. Reddy, University of Missouri, Columbia
H.K. Yasuda, University of Missouri, Columbia
Correspondent: Click to Email
Films formed from plasma polymerization of carbon containing, silane-based monomers have shown great promise as intermediate adhesion and anti-corrosion promoters on a number of substrates. Incorporation of oxygen in the deposition process has been shown to modify the surface energy of deposited films, yielding a fully variable range of surface wettability from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. A photoemission investigation of films formed with several monomers and various plasma ignition techniques was carried out. It yields insight regarding the chemical changes at the interface with oxidized surfaces, the surface structure of post-deposition plasma treated films, and the mechanism responsible for elemental bonding changes between types of deposition. Aging of a D.C. trimethylsilane plasma polymer was observed to primarily involve the oxidation of Si sites with a loss of carbon bound to silicon sites, which is correlated to spectroscopic ellipsometry data indicating the tendency for a more silica type index of refraction as the film ages. The aging/oxidation study then further correlates to the observed effects of the incorporation of oxygen with the monomer during deposition. Partial support for this project was provided by DARPA under U.S. Air Force contract # AF F33615-96-C-5055.