Atmospheric pressure surface modification and cross‐linking of UHMWPE film and inside HDPE tube by transporting discharge

In this work, the surface modification of ultra‐high‐molecular‐weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), a linear polymer, by a helium transporting discharge at atmospheric pressure was investigated by means of FTIR, AFM, XPS, ToF‐SIMS, and contact angle measurements. Two types of discharge configurations, that is, jet and glow of the transporting discharge for the surface treatment of polymer substrates were studied. The results show that the position of the UHMWPE polymer substrates plays an important role in the surface modification and stability of the treatment. The polymer substrates placed inside the transporting discharge tube present more stable wettability and surface modification. In addition, the transporting discharge was used to modify the inner surface of the high density polyethylene tube. This study investigates the surface treatment of ultra‐high‐molecular‐weight polyethylene film and high density polyethylene tube by means of helium transporting discharge. The latter can be very interesting for many applications in the field of biomedical but also food industry. Furthermore the important role of air contamination in the surface treatment of polymer films has been demonstrated by using two different configurations.