Plasma Treatment of Polyethylene Powder Particles in Hollow Cathode Glow Discharge

Polyethylen (PE) is widely used in the production of foils, insulators, packaging materials, plastic bottles etc. Untreated PE is hydrophobic due to its unpolar surface. Therefore, it is hard to print or glue PE and the surface has to be modified before converting.In the present experiments a hollow cathode glow discharge is used as plasma source which is mounted in a spiral conveyor in order to ensure a combines transport of PE powder particles. With this set-up a homogeneous surface treatment of the powder is possible while passing the glow discharge. The plasma treatment causes a remarkable enhancement of the hydrophilicity of the PE powder which can be verified by contact angle measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.