N2 plasma-assisted grafting of fluorinated chains onto partially cured epoxy resins

Two routes for the grafting of fluorinated molecules to an epoxy resin were studied. The first one deals with the grafting of the liquid-state resin whereas the second one is focused on the grafting onto the solid-state resin. These grafting reactions were shown to be similar as studied through FTIR and XPS spectroscopies. However, it appears that the grafting onto the solid-state resin is limited by the curing advancement. N₂ plasma-activation was used to solve this drawback and enhanced the grafting yield. This grafting improvement was mainly explained in terms of the surface wetting improvement and the attachment of nitrogen containing groups at the surface of the treated resin.