Influence of environmental humidity on plasma etching polyamide 6 films

The environmental humidity (EH) may have potential influence on atmospheric pressure plasma treatment. In order to investigate how the environmental humidity affects atmospheric pressure plasma treatment, polyamide 6 (PA 6) films were treated by helium/oxygen (He/O2) plasmas using atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) at different environmental humidity. The plasma treated samples had lower contact angles than the control. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) showed increased surface roughness, while X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed increased oxygen contents after the plasma treatments. The plasma treated films had higher T-peel strength than that of the control as revealed by T-peel strength tests. It was shown that the addition of environmental humidity increased effectiveness of the plasma in polymer surface modification after the treatment.