DIFFUSE COPLANAR SURFACE BARRIER DISCHARGE PLASMA TREATMENT AS A PART OF TECHNOLOGY FOR MANUFACTURING OF NANOFIBER-BASED FILTERS

Nanofiber membranes are made of synthetic polymers mainly by electrospinning technology. The key point for creating a functional nanofiber membrane for water and air filters is to meet basic key properties such as filtration efficiency, mechanical resistance, and resistance to fouling and chemicals. Design and manufacturing of the advanced nanofiber-based filters urgently require new environment-friendly and cost-effective surface treatments without the use of organic solvents and caustic solutions. To address this need, as an alternative, the atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment offers to be used for surface activation of polymer textile materials serving as a substrate for electrospun nanofiber. Nanofiber carriers represented by polypropylene non-woven were pre-treated by dielectric barrier discharge in continuous mode to improve the adhesion between the produced nanofibers and substrate. The increased adhesive forces to carrier substrate were confirmed by two peeling tests. The fact that the robust and effective atmospheric-pressure diffuse coplanar surface barrier discharge technology, primarily developed and optimized for the plasma treatment of textile and fibrous material, can be easily implemented in the industrial production lines predetermines this technology for in-line a large throughput manufacturing of advanced nanofiber-based filters.