Investigation of Surface Modifications of Metals with Low-Pressure Plasma System

The effects of plasma exposure and impingement of energetic particles are now widely used for substrate cleaning as well as to assist and control thin film growth and various applications. Plasma technology is a versatile green technology used for surface engineering technology. Plasma sources have become a very useful tool for surface modification and deposition of various materials. In this work, typical treatments of the surfaces of Mn, Fe, W and Cu metals were carried out using a low-pressure plasma system with argon gas and operating with an aluminum cathode. The plasma ignition was produced by flowing argon gas between two metal electrodes, and the maximum discharge voltage was 3 kV. All the treated metal samples were exposed to the plasma for a constant time of 2 hours. The modified metal surfaces were characterized by in situ X-ray florescence spectroscopy (XRF), contact angle measurements and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The wetting behavior of the treated metal surfaces was studied by employing the contact angle method. The contact angle is found to be dependable on the surface layer properties of the metals which in turn is affected by the dose time.