Diagnostics of low pressure microplasmas for surface modification

We investigated low pressure microplasmas for surface modification. The aim of this work was to functionalize only the inner surface of a porous polymeric hollow fiber membrane with amino groups. For the surface functionalization with amino groups, especially the concentrations of NH and NH₂ in the plasma gas-phase are of relevance. They can be generated for example from ammonia with admixtures of helium. A limitation is that all plasmas should have a gas temperature below the melting temperature of thermoplastic polymers.The temperature was measured in two ways; one was a fiber optical temperature sensor attached on the outside of a glass capillary, used as plasma chamber, the other one was carried out by estimation of the rotational temperature with optical emission spectroscopy from the distribution of the rotational transitions of the first negative system N₂⁺(B² ∑ _u⁺→X² ∑ _g⁺). By using plasma excitation in the kHz range, temperatures below 50 °C were measured with the temperature sensor. With MHz-excitation, however, the temperature raised up to 200 °C. With optical emission spectroscopy, the products of decomposition of ammonia were investigated. A gas mixture with a high amount of NH molecules in the gas phase was found. By means of the investigated microplasmas, we were able to functionalize the inner surface of a porous hollow fiber with amino-groups.