Improving adhesion of powder coating on PEEK composite: Influence of atmospheric plasma parameters
Résumé
In aeronautic industries, powder coatings are increasingly used because of environmental considerations. During the deposition of such a coating on a substrate piece, the main objective is to obtain a good coating/substrate adhesion. In this study, the targeted substrate is a Poly-(Ether EtherKetone)-(PEEK) based composite material. Due to the poor surface energy of PEEK, a surface treatment is necessary in order to enhance its adhesion with the coating. In this purpose, atmospheric plasma treatment has been chosen and the influence of plasma parameters has been studied. Four scan speed nozzles and three gases (Air, N2 and Argon) plasma has been tested. The increase of adhesion with increasing wettability, polarity and nanoroughness has been evidenced. A particular study of the type of grafted polar functionalities according to gas nature allowed to better understand the plasma mechanism and the cross-impact of polarity and nanoroughness in adhesion enhancement.