Photo-Initiated Lamination of Polyethylene (PE) and Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)

Besides plasma-based processes, photo-initiated surface modifications have an interesting potential for adhesion promotion. This is of special interest with applications ranging from classical finishing to composites. Photo-chemical processes using continuous UV sources - monochromatic as well as broad band - are based on radical activation and ensuing reaction with the atmosphere. Achievable effects are addition of atoms - e.g., introduction of oxygen (photo-oxidation) resulting in increased surface energy - or grafting of functional groups. Both have certain potentials for adhesion promotion in a physico-chemical way. Based on the fundamental scheme of these processes - i.e., a photon-initiated radical reaction at the substrate-atmosphere interface - a direct 'inter-linking' of coating polymer and substrate is presented in this paper. The principal idea is to apply a thin layer of coating polymer on the substrate and irradiate this composite system at certain UV wavelengths. Given a low absorption of the radiation by the thin coating and - at the same time - a high absorption by the substrate, the radiation will penetrate the coating layer and generate radicals at the interface, which will induce cross-linking between the coating polymer and substrate. It is shown that for the example of laminates of polyethylene (PE) film on fabrics made of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), extremely high adhesion strenghths are achieved without any use of additional adhesion promoters. (C) Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2012