plasma processes
Plasma processes exploit the ability to transfer electrical energy into a gas by means of an electrical discharge. Thanks to the plasma, the gas becomes a carrier of significant chemical energy capable of interacting with the surfaces of materials, modifying them significantly. For example, plasma treatment can change a surface from hydrophobic to hydrophilic, both on solid surfaces and powders.
By changing the wettability or adhesion capacity of a surface, plasma processes make it possible to replace many liquid chemical processes, which are polluting and costly. Generally, plasma processes do not use solvents (VOCs) and produce very low CO2 emissions.
Processes made possible by plasma
Plasma can be used to modify surfaces in 3 different ways:
Plasma finish cleaning removes surface contamination. As a complement to a traditional cleaning, plasma finish cleaning provides perfectly clean surfaces for subsequent treatment.
Surface activation by plasma most often precedes bonding, assembly or marking operations. Often used on plastics, plasma activation modifies surfaces by grafting polar or apolar radicals.
Plasma thin-film deposition is a process that opens the way to numerous industrial applications. It works by injecting a chemical precursor into the plasma post-discharge.