Raman spectroscopy of melamine-formaldehyde resin microparticles exposed to processing in complex plasma

We explore the characterization of melamine formaldehyde resin (MF-R) micron-sized particles, immersed in argon, neon and argon-oxygen plasmas, using Raman spectroscopy. It is shown that plasma treatment of MF-R results in modification of its chemical composition. Particularly, a decrease in the intensities of the Raman scattering bands, corresponding to both formaldehyde C-H and melamine C-N and N-H bonds, is observed. The band at 980-990 cm(-1), associated with breathing vibrations of the triazine rings, undergoes the most significant changes, and the greatest modifications of the spectra are observed after exposure to Ar and Ar-O-2 plasma, whilst for the MF-R particles exposed to Ne plasma these modifications are less pronounced. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.