Chemical characterisation of nitrogen-rich plasma-polymer films deposited in dielectric barrier discharges at atmospheric pressure

We have used an atmospheric pressure DBD apparatus to deposit novel families of N-rich plasma polymers (PP:N), using mixtures of three different hydrocarbon precursors in nitrogen at varying respective gas flow ratios. This research focuses on the overall chemical characterisation of those materials with specific attention to (semi)-quantitative analysis of functional groups. Well-established and some lesser-known analytical techniques have been combined to provide the best possible chemical and structural characterisations of these three families of PP:N thin films, namely XPS, NEXAFS and FT-IR spectroscopy.