Surface modification of the laser sintering standard powder polyamide 12 by plasma treatments. Issue 7 (7th June 2018) - Almansoori, Alaa
Abstract : Polyamide 12 (PA12) powder was exposed for up to 3 h to low pressure air plasma treatment (LP‐PT) and several minutes by two different atmospheric pressure plasma jets (APPJ) i.e., kINPen (K‐APPJ) and Hairline (H‐APPJ). The chemical and physical changes resulting from LP‐PT were observed by a combination of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Hot Stage Microscopy (HSM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), which demonstrated significant changes between the plasma treated and untreated PA12 powders. PA12 exposed to LP‐PT showed an increase in wettability, was relatively porous, and possessed a higher density, which resulted from the surface functionalization and materials removal during the plasma exposure. However, it showed poor melt behavior under heating conditions typical for Laser Sintering. In contrast, brief PJ treatments demonstrated similar changes in porosity, but crucially, retained the favorable melt characteristics of PA12 powder. Abstract : A surface modification of the laser sintering standard powder to tailor its properties for emerging applications which require special properties such as high hydrophilicity is carried out in this paper. The chemical and physical changes due to low‐pressure air plasma treatment (LP‐PT) including wettability, and pores formation are described and quantified. Atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ), on the other hand, demonstrated similar changes in porosity and wettability with retaining its favorable melt characteristics.