KINETIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ETCHING OF POLY(ETHYLENE-TEREPHTHALATE) INOXYGEN PLASMA

Etching of poly(ethylene terephthalate) films was investigated in a po sitive column of a direct current discharge in O-2 at 295 - 400 K. The rates of evolution of the,gaseous products (CO2, CO2 H2O, H-2), of O- 2 consumption, and of mass loss were determined as functions of temper ature. It was found that apparent activation energy Delta E is the sam e (approximate to 18 kJ/mol) for all processes at temperatures up to 3 75 K. Above 375 K, this value remains unchanged for evolution of the g aseous products, but decreases drastically for O-2 consumption and inc reases for the mass loss. Possible reasons for the observed phenomena are discussed.