| AVS 59th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Plasma Science and Technology | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session PS+TC-WeM |
| Session: | Atmospheric Plasma Processing for PV, Flexible Electronics (incl. R2R) |
| Presenter: | F. Fanelli, Institute of Inorganic Methodologies and Plasmas (IMIP) - CNR, Bari, Italy |
| Authors: | F. Fanelli, Institute of Inorganic Methodologies and Plasmas (IMIP) - CNR, Bari, Italy A.M. Mastrangelo, University of Bari Aldo Moro - IMIP CNR, Bari, Italy F. Fracassi, University of Bari Aldo Moro - IMIP CNR, Bari, Italy |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Aerosol-assisted atmospheric pressure cold plasma processes have been recently addressed as an attractive route towards the deposition of multifunctional coatings. This approach seems to be particularly convenient, and can even offer the only possible solution, when non-volatile precursors, solutions or dispersions need to be injected directly in the atmospheric plasma. The aerosol of a dispersion of nanoparticles (NPs) in a liquid precursor can lead to the deposition of nanocomposite coatings in which the NPs are embedded in the matrix formed by the plasma polymerization of the precursor.
This contribution is focused on the study of the growth and structure of plasma-deposited polyethylene/zinc oxide (PE/ZnO) nanocomposite coatings with several potential applications due for instance to the UV-protection and photocatalitic properties of ZnO.
The coatings are deposited in a parallel plate dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) fed with He and the aerosol of a dispersion of oleate-stabilized ZnO NPs in octane or octane/1,7-octadiene mixtures. The characterization of the coatings is performed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), water contact angle (WCA) goniometry.
A comprehensive study on the effect of different process parameters (e.g., atomization conditions, dispersion composition in terms of liquid precursor and ZnO NPs concentration, deposition time) on the chemical composition and structure of the film will be presented.
Preliminary results show that, as expected, with increasing the concentration of ZnO NPs in the starting dispersion from 0.5 to 5% p/p, the ZnO content in the coating increases. Surprisingly, the addition of a small amount of 1,7-octadiene to octane (0.5% v/v) favors the inclusion of the NPs and hence results in an increase of the ZnO concentration of the coatings.
Advancing and receding WCAs steeply increase with the NPs content in the film and reach values higher than 165° with low hysteresis indicating the formation of slippery superhydrophobic surfaces. SEM images confirm that this superhydrophobic character is due to the hierarchical micro-/nano-structured surface morphology of the coatings. ZnO NPs generally aggregate in almost spherical clusters that can be incorporated to a different extent into the polyethylene-like matrix as a function of the deposition process conditions.