Preliminary experiment of surface hardening of polymers by glow discharge polymerization

Polymers including polyethylene, polycarbonate, and polytetrafluoroethylene were modified by glow discharge polymerization to enhance surface hardness. The surface hardness of the polymer substrates could be improved by glow discharge polymerizations of silicon-containing compounds. The mixture of tetramethylsilane (TMS) and oxygen was more effective than tetramethoxysilane to improve the surface hardness. The surface hardness improved by the glow discharge polymerization strongly depended on the nature of the polymer substrates to be modified. The adhesion between polymer films prepared from the TMS/O₂ mixture by glow discharge polymerization and the polymer substrates was good.