Plasma Treatment of Polymer Powder for Advanced Applications

This study presents the results of thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and scanning electron microscopy to investigate the effects of air plasma treatment on polyamide 12 (PA12) powder for 1 and 2 h. Plasma treatment raised the degradation starting temperature from 376 °C for untreated PA12 powder to 389 °C for 2 h of treated powder. The crystallization temperature revealed by DSC increased from 133.31 to 141.7°C, whereas the melting point remained essentially unaltered at approximately 185°C. The fusion enthalpy decreased from 90.64 to 73.5 J/g, and the crystallinity also decreased from 41.9% to 34%. SEM results show a steady improvement toward homogeneity, accompanied by a diminishing amount and size of surface defects as the treatment proceeds. Such findings promote plasma treatment as an alternative route without any additives in raising the PA12 crystallization level and changing surface morphology together with improving its thermal stability, thus finding broad future application prospects in modified polymer engineering processing.