Atmospheric Pressure Nitrogen Corona Discharge and Its Application in Hydrophilicity Modification of Polypropylene Fibber Surfaces

Abstract We discussed the mechanism of the generation of two kinds of active particles that generated by pulsed corona discharge. We recorded and discussed the experimental results of the modification of the surface hydrophilicity of PP fibber. The experimental results showed that pulsed voltage and pulse repetition rate can cause the distribution of OH and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">N</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> active particles. The intensity of the active particles is larger at the needle high voltage electrode and at the plate electrode, and will decrease when comes to the middle. When plasma modification treatment is short, the water contact angle at PP fibber surface decreases rapidly. That means the plasma treatment enhanced PP surface hydrophilicity. But when the treatment time is longer, the active particles can cause damage of the PP fibber surface.