Polymerdimethylsiloxane surface treatment with an atmospheric pressure helium plasma jet driven by unipolar nanosecond pulses

Abstract A nanosecond-pulse power source transfers energy to electrons of atmospheric pressure discharges in a nanosecond-scale rising time and shows different plasma chemistry than a slowly varying sinusoidal discharge. We report how the operation parameters, such as applied voltage, pulse duration, and repetition frequency, affect the discharge characteristics and the surface property of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The applied voltage controls the energy delivery per a pulse cycle, and the repetition frequency dominantly affects the plasma density in a long-term operation. The water contact angle, the optical emission spectroscopy, and the atomic force microscope diagnostics on the PDMS are presented. While the polarity of the nano pulse bias changes the emission length of the plasma jet, the hydrophilicity is not affected by it because the chemical reactions by radicals are more dominant than the physical reactions of charged particles on PDMS.