Fluorination of carbon fibres in atmospheric plasma

Kingsley Kin Chee Ho, Adam F. Lee, Alexander Bismarck (Corresponding author)

Publications: Contribution to journalArticlePeer Reviewed

Abstract

Carbon fibres were successfully fluorinated in atmospheric-pressure plasma. By treating carbon fibres in a chlorodifluoromethane containing nitrogen atmospheric-pressure plasma, we were able to introduce fluorine groups to the surface of the carbon fibres. XPS confirms the presence of fluorine moieties on the carbon fibre surfaces. Measured contact angles confirm a significantly increased hydrophobicity of the treated carbon fibres. Zeta-potential measurements showed that acidic character of carbon fibres was increased. Although exposure of the carbon fibres to the atmospheric plasma jet causes surface sputtering; XRD analysis, Raman spectroscopy and conductivity measurements performed on the treated fibres show that atmospheric plasma treatment only modifies the surface of the carbon fibres without affecting the bulk properties.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)775-784
Number of pages10
JournalCarbon
Volume45
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2007
Externally publishedYes

Funding

Our research was made possible by the financial support of the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC), UK (Grant Award No: GR/S75673/01). We would like to thank Steven Lamorinière (PaCE, Imperial College London) for conducting Raman Spectroscopy measurements and Michael Q. Tran (PaCE, Imperial College London) for taking the SEM images and his valuable comments. We are very grateful to Dr Karen Wilson (Department of Chemistry, University of York) for the XPS measurements.

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 104017 Physical chemistry
  • 205019 Material sciences

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