CHANGES IN SURFACE-PROPERTIES AND STRUCTURE OF POLYIMIDE IN GLOW-DISCHARGES

Surface modifications of polyimide films in glow discharge plasmas are studied as functions of position in the reactor vessel, gaseous mediu m, processing time, and discharge current. It is found that a discharg e causes significant changes in the contact angle for wetting and that this effect depends on these factors. Multiple frustrated internal re flection IR spectroscopy is used to show that the number of NH and OH groups (in unbound carboxyl groups) increases as the surface is modifi ed, probably owing to decyclization through formation of anion radical s. The latter is confirmed by means of EPR.