Plazmové technologie pro materiály

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    Electric field and higher harmonics of RF plasma slit jet measured by antennas and VI probes
    (IOP Publishing, 2024-05-29) Polášková, Kateřina; Drexler, Petr; Klíma, Miloš; Macháč, Jan; Nečas, David; Švanda, Milan; Zajíčková, Lenka
    The cold atmospheric plasma jets change their character when interacting with the different surfaces. Since such interaction is the primary area of plasma jet applications, it is essential to monitor the process. The non-linearity of the RF plasma slit jet (PSJ) was analyzed using the VI probes and a novel method, the non-intrusive antenna measurements. Regardless of the experimental setup and gas mixture (Ar, Ar/O2, Ar/N2), the PSJ frequency spectrum consisted of the following main features: dominant fundamental frequency peak, relatively strong odd harmonics, and significantly weaker even harmonics. The lowest degree of non-linearity was recorded for the Ar PSJ ignited against a grounded target. Admixing a molecular gas increased the discharge non-linearity. It was attributed to the enhancement of secondary electron emission from the dielectric surfaces. In addition to the non-linearity analysis, the antenna spectra were for the first time used to determine the semi-quantitative values of the PSJ-radiated electric field. The electric fields decreased by a factor of 2 after the admixing of nitrogen and oxygen molecular gases. Out of the studied targets, the highest electric fields were observed when plasma impinged on the grounded targets, followed by the floating target (2x lower) and the PSJ ignited in the open space configuration (4x lower than in the grounded target configuration).
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    Comparing efficiencies of polypropylene treatment by atmospheric pressure plasma jets
    (WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH, 2023-07-11) Polášková, Kateřina; Ozkan, Alp; Klíma, Miloš; Jeníková, Zdeňka; Buddhadasa, Madhuwanthi; Reniers, François; Zajíčková, Lenka
    Plasma treatment of polypropylene (PP) is a well-established method of improving its surface properties. However, the efficiencies of different plasma discharges are seldom compared. Herein, we discuss the differences in PP treated by three arc-based commercial plasma jets working in dry air, Plasmatreat rotating plasma jet (PT-RPJ), AFS PlasmaJet & REG; (AFS-PJ), and SurfaceTreat gliding arc jet (ST-GA), and by the low-temperature RF plasma slit jet (RF-PSJ) working in argon. The AFS-PJ has a significantly different reactive species composition dominated by nitrogen oxides. It induced higher thermal loads leading to surface damage. The other arc-based jets (PT-RPJ and ST-GA) created the PP surface with higher oxygen and nitrogen concentration than the low-temperature RF-PSJ. It induced a higher adhesion strength measured on PP-aluminum joints.
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    Enhanced Adhesion of Electrospun Polycaprolactone Nanofibers to Plasma-Modified Polypropylene Fabric
    (MDPI, 2023-03-28) Janů, Lucie; Dvořáková, Eva; Polášková, Kateřina; Buchtelová, Martina; Ryšánek, Petr; Chlup, Zdeněk; Kruml, Tomáš; Galmiz, Oleksandr; Nečas, David; Zajíčková, Lenka
    Excellent adhesion of electrospun nanofiber (NF) to textile support is crucial for a broad range of their bioapplications, e.g., wound dressing development. We compared the effect of several low- and atmospheric pressure plasma modifications on the adhesion between two parts of composite-polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibrous mat (functional part) and polypropylene (PP) spunbond fabric (support). The support fabrics were modified before electrospinning by low-pressure plasma oxygen treatment or amine plasma polymer thin film or treated by atmospheric pressure plasma slit jet (PSJ) in argon or argon/nitrogen. The adhesion was evaluated by tensile test and loop test adapted for thin NF mat measurement and the trends obtained by both tests largely agreed. Although all modifications improved the adhesion significantly (at least twice for PSJ treatments), low-pressure oxygen treatment showed to be the most effective as it strengthened adhesion by a factor of six. The adhesion improvement was ascribed to the synergic effect of high treatment homogeneity with the right ratio of surface functional groups and sufficient wettability. The low-pressure modified fabric also stayed long-term hydrophilic (ten months), even though surfaces usually return to a non-wettable state (hydrophobic recovery). In contrast to XPS, highly surface-sensitive water contact angle measurement proved suitable for monitoring subtle surface changes.
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    Depth profiling of thin plasma-polymerized amine films using GDOES in an Ar-O-2 plasma
    (ELSEVIER, 2022-04-15) Kovač, Janez; Ekar, Jernej; Čekada, Miha; Zajíčková, Lenka; Nečas, David; Janů, Lucie; Wang, Jiang Yong; Mozetič, Miran
    Thin polymer films were deposited on polished stainless-steel samples by PECVD from a cyclopropylamine precursor and characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, secondary-ion mass spectrometry and glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GDOES) depth profiling. These depth profiles exhibited reasonable agreement. The GDOES involved the erosion of the polymer films in plasma sustained by an asymmetric RF capacitively coupled discharge using both Ar and Ar-O-2 gases. The application of pure Ar caused unwanted effects, such as the broadening of the polymer-film/substrate interface, which were suppressed when using the mixture with oxygen. Another benefit of oxygen was a significant increase in the etching rate by a factor of about 15 as compared to pure argon. The mechanisms involved in the depth profiling using the mixture of gases were elaborated in some detail, taking into account plasma parameters typical for an asymmetric, capacitively coupled RF discharge in a small volume. The main benefit of using the Ar/O-2 GDOES profiling with respect to XPS and SIMS depth profiling is the increased sputtering rate for polymer films. Comparing the GDOES depth profiling with the Ar/O-2 mixture with profiling in pure Ar, the benefits are a higher sputtering rate and better depth resolution at the polymer/substrate interface.
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    Biodegradable Nanohybrid Materials as Candidates for Self-Sanitizing Filters Aimed at Protection from SARS-CoV-2 in Public Areas
    (MDPI, 2022-02-01) Manakhov, Anton; Permyakova, Elizaveta; Sitnikova, Natalya A.; Tsygankova, Alphiya R.; Alekseev, Alexander Yu.; Solomatina, Mariia; Baidyshev, Victor S.; Popov, Zakhar; Janů, Lucie; Eliáš, Marek; Zajíčková, Lenka; Kovalskii, Andrey; Sheveyko, A.N.; Kiryukhantsev-Korneev, Philip; Shtansky, Dmitry V.; Nečas, David; Solovieva, Anastasiya
    The COVID-19 pandemic has raised the problem of efficient, low-cost materials enabling the effective protection of people from viruses transmitted through the air or via surfaces. Nanofibers can be a great candidate for efficient air filtration due to their structure, although they cannot protect from viruses. In this work, we prepared a wide range of nanofibrous biodegradable samples containing Ag (up to 0.6 at.%) and Cu (up to 20.4 at.%) exhibiting various wettability. By adjusting the magnetron current (0.3 A) and implanter voltage (5 kV), the deposition of TiO2 and Ag+ implantation into PCL/PEO nanofibers was optimized in order to achieve implantation of Ag+ without damaging the nanofibrous structure of the PCL/PEO. The optimal conditions to implant silver were achieved for the PCL-Ti0.3-Ag-5kV sample. The coating of PCL nanofibers by a Cu layer was successfully realized by magnetron sputtering. The antiviral activity evaluated by widely used methodology involving the cultivation of VeroE6 cells was the highest for PCL-Cu and PCL-COOH, where the VeroE6 viability was 73.1 and 68.1%, respectively, which is significantly higher compared to SARS-CoV-2 samples without self-sanitizing (42.8%). Interestingly, the samples with implanted silver and TiO2 exhibited no antiviral effect. This difference between Cu and Ag containing nanofibers might be related to the different concentrations of ions released from the samples: 80 mu g/L/day for Cu2+ versus 15 mu g/L/day for Ag+. The high antiviral activity of PCL-Cu opens up an exciting opportunity to prepare low-cost self-sanitizing surfaces for anti-SARS-CoV-2 protection and can be essential for air filtration application and facemasks. The rough cost estimation for the production of a biodegradable nanohybrid PCL-Cu facemask revealed $0.28/piece, and the business case for the production of these facemasks would be highly positive, with an Internal Rate of Return of 34%.