Organosilicon coatings made by a dielectric barrier discharge at atmospheric pressure: toward a better understanding of the fragmentation processes

Jacopo Profili

Advanced functionalization and nanometric thin layers have received a lot of interest because their potential to well control surfaces and interfaces for different industrial applications. In the last years, plasma processes at atmospheric pressure have been widely studied to offer an eco-friendlier alternative for the conventional chemical methods. Several advantages have been already confirmed with the recent works including the possibility to eliminate solvents during the modification, the reduction of by-products, the increase of chemical efficiency during the process through a direct electrification of the reactions and finally the development of an alternative chemistry to synthesize a wide range of new materials.

Today, plasma modifications at atmospheric pressure are also implemented in some innovative industry. Water stability, dielectric and barrier proprieties of plasma-coatings are now essential features for the automotive, health and electronic fields. In addition, chemical functionalization using different types of reactors (i.e. plasma-jet, dielectric barrier discharge, gliding arc, etc.) has also been used in different companies to improve the adhesion of surfaces and tune the biochemical compatibility in complex medical devices. Recently, the use of these advanced plasma processes has also been implemented to control the performances of electrochemical devices as well as photovoltaic cells. In this work, we report the recent results obtained to understand the fragmentaion processes in a dielectric barrier discharge by using different organosilicon precursors.

An overview of the potential new applications related to the growing industrial markets will be also discussed. The main objective of this presentation is to create a clear discussion within the participant to clarify the underlying physical and chemical challenges that must be considered today when a plasma process at atmospheric pressure is used in industry.