I would like to ask about the best conditions for modification of polydimethylsiloxane sponge surface to introduce hydroxyl groups using air plasma treatment including plasma power, air flow rate and pressure.
Hello Islam A. Abdelhafeez
What are you planning to do once you have activated the surface? You mention a PDMS « sponge » surface? Have you treated the PDMS other than the standard thermal curing process?
In my experience the settings can vary be quite different between systems, even with the same manufacturer. Which plasma system are you using?
If you are bonding the PDMS be careful not to treat the PDMS for too long.
Look forward to further information. I am sure the PDMS guru Ron Reiserer will be able to help.
Dear Islam Abdlenaser Abdelhfeez
According to my experience, the appropriate condition for air plasma treatment of polydimethylsiloxane surface was the plasma treatment time of 6 min and plasma input power of 360w. If you need additional information can look for my paper entitles: Enhanced Ethanol Separation by Corona-Modified Surface MWCNT Composite PDMS/PES.PVP Membrane, JOM, 833 (2018) 1-9.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-018-3158-8
In my work, PDMS surface modification by plasma treatment and coating MWCNT on the surface of treated PDMS were performed. PDMS surface treatment was operated in the air at atmospheric pressure using a corona. PDMS surface with dimension of 10×10cm were placed on the silicon roller; then, rotated at uniform speed. The distance between aluminum electrodes and backing roll was adjusted to 2 mm. The corona unit was operated with the air gap between the electrode and backing roll.
Also, I recommend you to study several papers which can help you. I hope my answer, my paper and introduced papers will be useful to you. Regards
Thank you Jules Lloyd Hammond for yor suggestion. I am going to modify wettabiltiy of PDMS to be further hydrophilic.
Dear Amirhossein Farahi, thank you for your valuable recommendation and papers.
For surface modification inside a complex structure, I would suggest oxidation with a liquid rather than plasma or corona. It will be tough to get any reactive species more than a few microns into the interior of the sponge with vacuum plasma although you might have decent luck with corona since it can penetrate deep into complex structures but without much control. Using 1M sodium hydroxide will allow you to oxidize the complex structure and add some permanent groups like amines (APTES) to keep the interior structure hydrophilic. This treatment is also done in aqueous solution.
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