A study is presented on cold plasma treatment of the surfaces of two engineering polymers, polyamide 6 (PA6) and polyoxymethylene (POM-C), by diffuse coplanar surface barrier discharges under atmospheric air conditions. We found that plasma treatment improved the adhesion of both polymers for either polymer/polymer or polymer/steel joints. However, the improved adhesion was selective for the investigated adhesive agents that were dissimilar for the two studied polymers. In addition, improvement was significantly higher for PA6 as compared to POM-C. The observed variation of the adhesion was discussed in terms of the changes in surface chemistry, wettability and topography of the polymer surface.
Keywords: DCSBD; XPS; adhesion; cold plasma; engineering polymers; surface chemistry.