Plasma oxidation, fibers, surface

Plasma Oxidation of Fibers and Surface Grafting of Coatings to Wool Fibers... 

Plasma oxidation of fibers is an example of a treatment aimed at chemically modifying the surface to improve a surface property. These treatments have wide application in industry and are used to improve wettability and printability of plastics, the adhesion of materials to surfaces including tissue culture cells, and a variety of other applications (36). 

Oxidation of the surface of wool fibers is known to reduce felting shrinkage as well as improve other properties of wool fibers (37) Oxidation may be proformed or effected in a number of ways including gas phase plasma treatment (38). 

Three carbon fiber surfaces are compared in this study Amoco Thornel-300 graphitized at 2500 C, Hercules IM6 carbon fiber subjected to surface oxidation but with no subsequent deposition of size (oils, surfactants, or polymer films applied to facilitate manufacture and processing), and unsized IM6 treated with a radio frequency glow discharge plasma. 

Treatments can be applied by a batch or continuous process and obviously, fiber production will favour the latter. Many methods of oxidative surface treatment have been used including gaseous, solution, electrochemical, plasma and catalytic. 

Electric discharge (corona, cold plasma) is another method of physical treatment. Corona treatment is one of the most interesting techniques for surface oxidation activation. This process changes the surface energy of the cellulose fibers [28]. In the case of wood surface activation it increases the amount of aldehyde groups [291. 

Surface treatments of carbon fibers can in general be classified into oxidative and non-oxidative treatments. Oxidative treatments are further divided into dry oxidation in the presence of gases, plasma etching and wet oxidation the last of which is carried out chemically or electrolytically. Deposition of more active forms of carbon, such as the highly effective whiskerization, plasma polymerization and grafting of polymers are among the non-oxidative treatments of carbon fiber surfaces. 

Hypolipemic activity. Fiber, administered orally to nine adults with ileostomies at a dose of 13 g/day, increased the excretion of cholesterol " Petroleum ether extract of the fresh fruit, administered to pigs at a concentration of 3.5 g/kg of diet, was inactive "" . Purified green barley extract, in human mononuclear culture of cells isolated from perithelial blood and synovial fluid of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, was active . Leaf essence, administered to atherosclerotic New Zealand White male rabbits at a dose of 1% of diet, produced a decrease of plasma total cholesterol, triacylglycerol, lucigenin-chemilumines-cence, and luminal-chemiluminescence levels. The value of Tj of red blood cell hemolysis and the lag phase of LDL oxidation increased in barley-treated group compared with the control. Ninety percent of the intimal surface of the thoracic aorta was covered with atherosclerotic lesions in the... 

Cyclic voltammetric methods have been used for investigating surface oxygen compounds present on the surface of unmodified carbon materials, and in some cases, previously oxidized materials (electrochemically, oxygen rf-plasma, air, and steam), such as carbon blacks 9,10), gla.sslike carbon [11-15], graphite [16,17], carbon fibers [18-21], pyrolytic carbon [22,23] and active carbon [24-28],... 

Figure 5.24 shows the effect of oxidation on dispersive and polar components of surface free energy. Carbon fibers were exposed to plasma treatment in the presence of various ratios of CF4 and O2. The untreated sample and the samples exposed to a substantial concentrations of oxygen show increase in the polar component. Fligh concentrations of CF4 gas reduced its dispersive component and converted the surface to a PTFE-like material as confirmed by XPS studies. 

These differences in the chemical structure of the surface depend not only on the process of manufacture but also on additional treatments or processing conditions. In oxidized carbon fibers, the concentration of carbonyl and, more particularly carboxyl groups, is substantially increased at the expense of hydroxyl groups. In the treatment of carbon fibers, several methods of oxidation are used. Liquid phase oxidation is carried out by the electrochemical and chemical methods whereas gaseous oxidation is carried out in air, oxygen or in the presence of catalysts. Plasma treatment is also used for the surface oxidation of formed fibers. Different methods of oxidation produce different surface characteristics. For example, interlaminar strength is improved by a factor of 10 by electrolytic oxidation over crude oxidation in air. 

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