Aerodynamically enhanced atomospheric pressure plasma jet for polymer treatment

Summary form only given. Atmospheric pressure plasma jets are becoming increasingly popular and have found applications in many areas from surface processing of various metallic and polymeric materials to treatment of biological specimens. The main advantage of this plasma source lies in the fact that the electrodes are not in contact with the material being processed. In general, plasma jet working distances are somewhat limited. In some applications, for example, decontamination, longer process standoff distances are desired. By aerodynamic enhancement, it is possible to considerably increase working distance as well as potential provide additional cooling at the substrate. Aerodynamic enhancement of the plasma jet, based on the theory of boundary layer confinement, keeps the jet stream stable and confined to the required processing area of the substrate. This work focuses on exploiting aerodynamic enhancement as a means of increasing the working distance of an atmospheric pressure plasma jet. The scaling laws for such confinement schemes are explored. Additionally, a change in the contact angle of a downstream polymer substrate as a function of distance is used to assess the effectiveness of this approach.