September, 2021 Continued from previous page
create intermediate bonding sur- faces with either polar or disper- sive surface energy to help print- ing inks adhere to the surface of the plastic. “This approach can facilitate the durable printing of a logo on the surface of bottles when the logo cannot fade after the first wash,” says Blaik. He notes that another application includes the printing on plastics used for syringes, which do not bond easily with biodegradable inks that are friendly to the human body.
Microfluidic Devices Typically, microfluidic sys-
tems used for medical or indus- trial applications transport, mix, separate, or otherwise process small amounts of fluids using channels made of plastics, meas- uring from tens to hundreds of micrometers. Microfluidic devices usually
have various wells containing different chemistries, either mixed or kept separate. So, it is imperative to either maintain flow through the channel or pre- vent any residual liquid flow in the channel after the chemistry has passed through it. “With microfluidics, plasma
treatment is used to disperse liq- uid on the surface to allow it to flow through easily,” says Blaik. “Or it can make the surface more hydrophobic (water repellent) to prevent the fluids from clumping together in unintended areas. When the fluids are ‘pushed away,’ this minimizes the chance of any sticking or getting left behind.” In such cases, plasma treat-
ment of plastic surfaces can facil- itate the smooth, precise flow of liquids in the narrow channels. This can be critical not only for safety in medical procedures but also for quality for industrial processes.
Dissimilar Material Bonding In the automotive industry,
there is a push to use different plastic materials to reduce the vehicles’ weight and make them safer. However, getting plastic to adhere to metal, rubber, other types of plastic can sometimes be exceedingly difficult. When traditional chemical
adhesives fail to sufficiently bond dissimilar types of materials, or if companies are looking to reduce the amount of chemical waste pro- duced, engineers often turn to plasma treatments to solve com- plex adhesion problems. Plasma treatment can assist the bonding of dissimilar materials. While treating the plastic
alone can improve its binding, treating both materials enhances the binding of both by improving adhesive wicking across the sur- face. “Whether bonding metal to plastic, silicon to glass, polymers
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to other polymers, biological con- tent to microtiter plates, or even bonding to PTFE, plasma can be used to promote adhesion,” says Blaik. Like with printing, adhesion
promotion is achieved by increas- ing the surface free energy through several mechanisms. This includes precision cleaning, chemically or physically modify- ing the surface, increasing surface area by roughening, and using primer coatings, explains Blaik. “The net effect is a dramatic
improvement in bonding. In some cases, up to a 50x increase
in bond strength can be achieved,” he says.
Partner for Plasma Each year, billions of multi-
well plates, pipettes, bottles, flasks, vials, Eppendorf tubes, culture plates, and other poly- mer labware items are manufac- tured for research, drug discov- ery, and diagnostics testing. Although many are simple,
inexpensive consumables, an increasing percentage are now being surface treated using gas plasma or have functional coat- ings specifically designed to
improve the quality of research and increase the sophistication of diagnostics. Among the goals of surface modification is im - proved adhesion and prolifera- tion of antibodies, proteins, cells, and tissue. Most of the plasma applica-
tions for plastic labware can be categorized as “simple” treat- ments, such as oxygen or argon plasma for cleaning the sub- strate at the molecular level. The use of plasma is also well estab- lished for surface conditioning to make polymers more hydropho-
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