Atmospheric Pressure Pulsed Plasma Copolymerisation of Maleic Anhydride and Vinyltrimethoxysilane: Influence of Electrical Parameters on Chemistry, Morphology and Deposition Rate of the Coatings

Tuning of the electrical parameter (e.g. power and pulsed discharge) of an Atmospheric Pressure Dielectric Barrier Discharge (AP-DBD) plasma of Maleic Anhydride (MA) and vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMOS) allows the formation of coatings with different combination of anhydride/carboxylic group surface density, morphology and deposition rate. Pulsing of the discharge favours the incorporation of MA with a high structural retention, leading to coatings with a chemical composition similar to the expected conventional MA-VTMOS copolymer one. A kinetic model based on the free radical polymerisation is developed to correlate the carboxylic groups density on the plasma functionalised surface and the duration of the plasma off-time.