Surface modification of a polytetrafluoroethylene film with cyclotron ion beams and its evaluation

We tested a possibility of surface modification of a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) film by irradiating either proton or helium ion beams for up to 20 min with both beam energies from 9 MeV to 50 MeV and beam currents from 1 nA to 100 nA. The treated PTFE films were evaluated by dynamic water contact angle measurement, scanning electron microscopy, X-photoelectron microscopy and cellular adhesion. The results indicated that lower energy and helium ion beams induced better surface modification than proton beams did, judged by the above chemical and physical changes of the films.