Atmospheric pressure plasma modification of glass surfaces

Atmospheric pressure plasmas, especially those operated at non-equilibrium conditions, have recently become a subject of great interest for a wide variety of technologies including surface treatment. We report a study on cleaning and activation of three different glass surfaces: inorganic soda-lime glass, organic acrylic glass and glass with indium-tin oxide (ITO) layer, by ambient air atmospheric pressure plasma generated using Diffuse Coplanar Surface Barrier Discharge (DCSBD). The effects of plasma treatment on glass surfaces were studied by contact angle measurement to determine the free surface energy, by Atomic force microscope (AFM) to measure the surface roughness and by X-ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to investigate the surface chemistry. The spectroscopic properties of DCSDB plasma, i.e. vibrational and rotational temperatures, were studied using optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The influence of oxygen concentration on DCSBD micro-discharge spatial attributes was investigated and discussed. An enhancing influence of a glass and ITO glass surfaces on DCSBD diffuse plasma was observed and explained by different discharge onset and by changes in an electric field distribution. (Author)