Investigation on gas plasma and liquid plasma treatment for polyether ether ketone (PEEK) surface for wettability enhancement

Abstract

The results of liquid and gas plasma treatment on polyether ether ketone PEEK surfaces are reported. The experiments were conducted by using variation of treatment time (5 s to 60 s) using Helium as its working gas. The results were obtained by measuring the water contact angle (WCA) and the studying the surface morphology of the PEEK surface. Comparisons of WCA and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis were conducted for samples which undergone gas plasma treatment and liquid plasma treatment. After gas plasma treatment, WCA of the PEEK surface decreased from 65? to 21?. Results of WCA for liquid plasma treatment showed decrement from 65? to 45?. Images from SEM showed PEEK surface area after gas and liquid plasma showed surface area increment of 40% for gas plasma and 20% for liquid plasma. The decrement of WCA and increment of surface area showed that PEEK surface properties changed from hydrophobic to hydrophilic via wettability enhancement.