Comparative tensile strength study of the adhesion improvement of PTFE by UV photon assisted surface processing

Abstract Poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) is notable for its non-adhesive and non-reactive properties. A number of technologies can potentially benefit from the application of PTFE, but these characteristics restrict the ability to structuring its surface. In this paper, we present results on two ultraviolet photon assisted treatments of PTFE. The originally poor adhesion was significantly improved by both 172 nm excimer lamp and 193 nm excimer laser assisted surface treatments. While Xe 2 ∗ lamp irradiation, applied in a modest vacuum environment, was sufficient by itself to improve adhesion, the ArF laser process was only effective when the irradiated interface was in contact with 1,2-diaminoethane photoreagent. It was found that the tensile strength of an epoxy resin glued interface created on treated surfaces depended strongly on the applied number of laser pulses and lamp irradiation time. Laser treatment caused fast tensile strength increase during the first 50–500 pulses, while after this it saturates slowly at about 5.5 MPa in the 500–2500 pulse domain. The excimer lamp irradiation resulted in a maximum tensile strength of approximately 10 MPa after 2 min irradiation time which reduced to about 65% of the peak value at longer times.