Maleic anhydride film deposition through an active screen plasma system

The active screen plasma system has been extensively studied over the past few years, mainly for plasma nitriding purposes. This technique also provides possibilities of treating non-electrical conducting materials, such as polymeric ones, which is unattainable with a conventional DC plasma system. In this work, an active screen plasma setup for maleic anhydride (MA) film deposition on a glass substrate was used. The plasma working gas was a mixture of argon and MA vapour. Films obtained through conventional plasma discharge were compared with the active screen deposition process, in both DC and pulsed-mode plasma. The samples were characterized through Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and static contact angle between the film's surface and droplets of distilled water. Film thickness measurements were performed through profilometry. Results showed that MA films obtained through the active screen system are thicker and more efficiently preserve the anhydride groups than those obtained from conventional plasma discharge.