EP1051266A1

EP1051266A1 - Polar polymeric coating

Info

Publication number: EP1051266A1
Application number: EP99901558A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Eva Maria Moser
Original assignee: EMPA ST GALLEN EIDGENOESSISCHE MATERIALPRUEFUNGS- und FORSCHUNGSANSTALT; EMPA ST GALLEN EIDGENOESSISCHE; Eidgenoessische Materialprufungs und Forschungsanstalt EMPA
Current assignee: Eidgenoessische Materialprufungs und Forschungsanstalt EMPA
Priority date: 1998-02-05
Filing date: 1999-02-05
Publication date: 2000-11-15
Anticipated expiration: 2019-02-05
Also published as: BR9907692A; ATE234165T1; JP2002502688A; AU2147299A; US6746721B1; CA2318129A1; EP1051266B1; WO1999039842A1; DE59904532D1

Abstract

The coating of substrates, particularly polymers and ceramic or metal substrate, for the production of a polar, polymeric coating is conducted by plasma polymerization. The process gas used for this purpose is free from water or water vapor and contains at least one organic compound, in addition to an inorganic gas and/or carbon monoxide and/or carbon dioxide and/or ammonium and/or nitrogen and/or another gas containing nitrogen.

Description

- 1 -

Polar polymer-like coating

The present invention relates to a method for coating polymeric substrates with a long-term stable, polar coating, a method for increasing the wettability or printability of polymeric substrates, such as in particular packaging films, containers and the like made of polymeric materials, and a stable, polar, polymeric Coating of a substrate, produced using the method according to the invention.

The coating of polymeric substrates, such as, in particular, flexible substrates, takes place, inter alia, in order to influence the surface quality or the appearance of the polymer, or to protect the surface both mechanically, physically and chemically. Be this to increase the adhesion to the surface or the printability, to prepare the surface for further functional coatings, to ensure protection against abrasion or damage, to reduce the permeability of certain gases or liquids to or through the surface of the substrate or to prevent, or to increase the chemical resistance of the substrate to certain chemicals.

A large number of methods are known for the surface treatment of polymeric substrates, which increases the polarity or surface tension for a short time, whereby basically two methods are increasingly to be found: the modification of the

Surface, for example, by a corona discharge at atmospheric pressure or by a plasma process at reduced pressure. The two methods mentioned are particularly important in connection with increasing the adhesion to the polymeric substrate or increasing the printability. However, with corona discharge it has been shown that the printability, for example of polymeric packaging films, is only good immediately after the treatment has been carried out and the printability decreases again after a few hours to days.

In contrast, it is proposed in a number of documents to modify or coat the polymer by means of a low-pressure plasma process, which coating is generally hydrophilic and enables good adhesion or printability. This remains practically unlimited due to the coating.

For example, JP-59-15569 and PCT / AU89 / 00220 propose to coat a polymeric substrate by means of plasma polymerization of an organic compound, together with optionally a working gas and water or water vapor. Furthermore, it is proposed in WO95 / 04609 to treat or coat the surface by means of plasma polymerization of an organic compound in the presence of hydrogen peroxide.

On the one hand, the coatings proposed from the prior art have poor adhesion to the substrate or are poorly wettable. The use of peroxide or water and oxygen is problematic because the "working gas" thus obtained is aggressive and can attack the surface of the substrate (etching). It is therefore an object of the present invention to propose a coating method for polymeric substrates which does not have the existing disadvantages.

According to the invention, it is proposed to coat the polymeric substrate by means of plasma polymerization, the process gas used for the plasma polymerization in a plasma reactor being anhydrous or steam-free and which contains at least one organic compound and an inorganic gas and / or carbon monoxide and / or carbon dioxide and / or ammonia and / or another N-containing gas.

The organic compound is a hydrocarbon compound which is relatively low molecular weight or which has up to a maximum of eight carbon atoms, as a result of which the compound has a relatively high vapor pressure at room temperature.

Alkanes, alkenes, alkynes (acetylene), polyenes, mono- or polyhydric alcohols, carboxylic acids, ethers, aldehydes and / or ketones are preferably used. These can be aliphatic, cycloaliphatic or aromatic hydrocarbon compounds.

The use of water vapor as process gas in a gas discharge is anything but ideal and must be avoided. Furthermore, a water-containing layer has a lower chemical and thermal resistance, which will have a negative effect on the subsequent processing steps as well as the definition and stability of the layers. The plasma-polymerized layer according to the invention is water-free and so compact that, although it is hydrophilic, it absorbs almost no water during further processing. - 4 -

For this reason, it is essential to the invention in any case that the process gas or working gas used for the plasma polymerization is water-free or steam-free. The absence of water or water vapor at least in the process gas can also ensure in any case that the working gas or gas mixture may not contain any peroxide compounds which can form, for example, when water and oxygen are used in the plasma chamber.

Only when oxygen and hydrogen are used simultaneously in the process gas or compounds containing oxygen and hydrogen, such as ethanol or methanol, is it possible for water vapor or peroxide to form during the process, but only traces of these components are formed, which usually do not adversely affect the coating. In addition, the formation of water vapor, respectively. Peroxide predictable or controllable and therefore limited.

A comparison with the coatings, known, for example, from the three aforementioned documents from the prior art, shows such a high degree of hydrophilicity of the layers on the polymeric substrate that a significantly better printability results. Even if stored for at least six months. It is assumed that this improvement in the properties of the coatings proposed according to the invention is due to the fact that the process gas used in the method proposed according to the invention is water-free or steam-free.

In principle, all known plasma methods, such as, for example, microwave discharge, high or high-frequency discharge, are suitable for carrying out the method proposed according to the invention Low-frequency discharge, DC magnetron discharge, arc evaporation, the use of electron beam guns etc. The method proposed according to the invention is also suitable for the coating of all known polymer substrates used today, for example for the production of packaging materials, such as polyethylene , Polyamide, polypropylene, PMMA, PVC, polyester such as PETP, PBTP, polyimide, polycarbonate etc. etc. It is also conceivable to coat metallic and ceramic substrates. The polar layer can then serve as an adhesion promoter between these materials and further layers, such as, for example, corrosion protection layers, or enable the bonding of different materials, such as metal / polymer, etc.

By means of the method proposed according to the invention, the polymer substrate mentioned is provided with a polar polymer-like coating or with a plasma layer with a high surface tension, in which coating polar groups are incorporated, such as hydroxyl, carboxyl, carbonyl groups (see FIGS. 2a and 2b) or NO _x groups, as a result of which excellent adhesion for polar functional layers and / or polar materials can be achieved on the surface of this coating, which is expressed, for example, in very good printability. In particular, packaging materials, foils, containers, bottles, made from the above-mentioned polymeric substrates, can thus be processed in a significantly simplified manner. Usually a coating of the order of a few nm is sufficient to achieve this increased adhesion and printability.

As already mentioned, all of the known and customary methods per se can be used to carry out the proposed method Low pressure plasma processes are used, which is why a detailed description of these processes can be omitted here. The, for example, flexible substrate to be coated, such as, for example, a film, a hollow body or the like, is introduced into a vacuum chamber into which the working gas, consisting of the components mentioned, is introduced. It is essential, as already mentioned above, that this working gas is free of water, water vapor or moisture. A plasma-polymerized layer is then deposited on the surface of the material to be coated using the plasma process.

It is also possible to coat a granulate or powder according to the invention and then to produce a polar film or body therefrom. (Ref. 2)

The coating produced in this way by means of plasma polymerization generally has a layer thickness of a few nm, for example between 1 and 100, preferably 5 to 20 nm; however, it can also be a few μm. Of course, the layer thickness depends on the requirements as to whether scratch protection or an anti-fog effect should be achieved in addition to the printability, to which the coating achieved according to the invention can also make a contribution.

The ratio between the inorganic gas component, such as oxygen, nitrogen, ammonia or carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide, and the organic compound also depends on the properties of the coating. The ratio can vary widely, depending on which components contain the gas mixture or the working gas. Table 1 shows a few examples. To- - 7 -

In addition to the components mentioned, other components, such as, in particular, noble gases, such as argon, helium, etc., can of course be used.

Particularly suitable organic compounds are alkanes with a chain length of up to about eight carbon atoms, such as methane, ethane, propane, etc. However, alkenes, such as ethylene, propylene, etc., are also suitable as organic compounds.

Also suitable are acetylene or compounds based on acetylene, such as the so-called alkynes.

Polyenes are also suitable, i.e. Hydrocarbons with several double bonds, again with up to about eight carbon atoms.

Alcohols such as methanol, ethanol, propanol etc. and polyhydric alcohols such as ethylene glycol are also suitable.

Mono- or polyvalent organic acids, ethers, aldehydes and ketones are also suitable. The hydrocarbon compounds described can be aliphatic, cycloaliphatic or aromatic hydrocarbons, although all of the above-mentioned compounds can of course also be substituted, for example by amino groups, halogens, ammonia, etc.

The present invention will be explained in more detail using the following examples:

Examples: Stable hydrophilic surfaces due to plasma-polymerized functional layers with polar groups: - 8th -

At a base pressure of, for example, better than 3 x 10 ^"6 mbar, a plasma reactor is flooded with the process gas mixture until the desired process pressure is reached, for example 1.6 x 10 ^{" 2} mbar. In the present examples, a microwave discharge (2.45 GHz) was then ignited, the process gases being supplied continuously. A layer with a polar fraction of 41% and a surface tension of 50 mN / m was achieved with a gas mixture of 48 sccm (standard cubic cm per minute) C0 ₂ , 12 sccm CH ₄ and 12 sccm Ar, with a microwave power of 62 watts (sample 10 / PET). The substrate was a 12 μm thin PET film or a 20 μm thin polypropylene film (sample 2 / BOPP), representative of polymeric substrates. An increase in the process pressure up to atmospheric pressure will lead to a higher deposition rate and is currently the status of the optimization of the coatings. Table 1 also shows that the desired surface tension for the corresponding substrate can be achieved by varying the output and the process gas mixture. The comparison of the different gas mixtures in Table 1 shows that the gas mixture has a greater influence on the hydrophilicity than the variation of the power supplied to the plasma by 80 watts. Table 1 shows the coatings which were produced between July and October 1997 and for which the surface tension was measured again in January 1999.

None of the coatings had a total surface tension lower than 45 mN / m after 12 weeks, which is of crucial importance for the following processing steps in production. Sample 1 / PET was produced on July 16, 1997, the surface tension still being 47 mN / m after 6 months and 49 nM / m after 18 months. In the In contrast, the corona treatment and surface modification with low-pressure plasmas (with oxygen and / or nitrogen-containing process gases) did not result in such a high surface tension after a few weeks. According to the literature, the plasma-modified surface is restructured in the first three weeks after the treatment (ref. 1). Now that the stability of the hydrophilic layer has been monitored for more than 18 months, it can be safely assumed that the stable state has been reached, since the surface tension and the polarity values of the coatings changed only insignificantly after about two months, such as for example also recognizable from FIG. 3.

The chemical structure of the hydrophilic layers can be seen in the attached FIGS. 2a and 2b. The two FIGS. 2a and 2b show XPS spectra (= X-X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) of C (ls), samples 8 and 10 (PET) from Table 1. The areas shown in FIGS. 2a and 2b are each representative of the following bonds: 1 for 0-C = 0; 3 for C = 0; 5 for C-O; 7 for C-H. C-O bonds are present in alcohol and ether; C = 0 in ketones and aldehydes and 0-C = 0 in esters and carboxylic acids.

In FIG. 2a, the area share 1 is 6.5%, the area share 3 is 8.9%, the share 5 is 20.1% and the area share 7 is 64.5%. The total carbon content is 76.2% and that of oxygen is 23.8%. The ratio of carbon to oxygen is therefore 76.2: 23.8.

In Fig. 2b the area share 1 is 15.4%, of area 3 2.6%, of area 5 20.0% and of area 7 61.9%. The share C (ls) is 70.0% and the share 0 (ls) 30.0%. - 10 -

The XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) results show that the polar surface of sample 10 / PET contains 6 at% more oxygen than sample 8 / PET and that this is predominantly present in ester and carboxyl compounds. (The hydrogen cannot be detected with this method). In both samples (8 / PET and 10 / PET) a fifth of the oxygen is bound as alcohol or ether. The higher polarity (polar fraction / total surface tension) of 41% (sample 10 / PET) compared to 33% (sample 8 / PET) is therefore due to a higher oxidation of the carbon atoms (0-C = 0).

A series of PET and BOPP films were coated using the processes described above, for example, the coating of which was then used to determine the total surface tension and the polarity. The coating parameters and the results of the measurements are summarized in Table 1 below.

PET: polyethylene terephthalate film 12 μm thick

BOPP: Biaxially oriented polypropylene 20 μm thick

The wettability of all coatings listed in Table 1 and all samples is between 20 and 63 mN / m (according to DIN-EN 828 (draft)). With regard to the examples of layers produced, summarized in Table 1, it is important to emphasize that the layers produced in this way remain polar. It has been proven that these remain polar for at least twelve months, from which it can probably be concluded that these layers remain stable for years. - 11 -

The test conditions described above, for example, only serve to explain the basic idea of the present invention in more detail. Of course, it is possible to produce plasma-polymerized coatings under the most varied of conditions and on a wide variety of substrates in accordance with the process defined according to the invention. Coating (any functional layer which is more polar in nature), printing, laminating (gluing - adhesion to polar adhesives) is made possible on such a polar surface for new printing media and adhesives based on the solvent water. In order to additionally stabilize the surface tension, doping of the coating with inorganic anions (nitrogen, fluorine, etc.) and inorganic cations (metals and metal oxides) are provided. This means that other properties, such as the electrical conductivity of the layer can be set accordingly for the product requirement.

It is essential to the invention that the working gases used for the plasma polymerization are water-free or free of water vapor or moisture.

(Ref. 1): Thomas R. Gengenbach et al. , "Concurrent Restructuring and Oxidation of the Surface of n-Hexanes Plasma Polymers During Aging in Air", Plasmas and Polymers, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1996, pp. 207-228.

(Lit. 2): J. Messelhäuser, S. Berger, "Plasma Modification of Powdery Plastics", 7th German Conference, March 13-14, 1996, Rub-Bochum, p. 39 ff.

Claims

- 12 patent claims:

1. A method for coating substrates with a polar coating, characterized in that the coating is carried out by means of plasma polymerization, the process gas used being essentially water-free or steam-free and at least one organic compound and additionally an inorganic gas and / or carbon monoxide and / or contains carbon dioxide and / or ammonia and / or nitrogen and / or another nitrogenous gas.

2. The method, in particular according to claim 1, characterized in that a polymeric substrate, such as in particular a flexible substrate, is coated.

3. The method, in particular according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the inorganic gas is oxygen, nitrogen, a halogen, hydrogen and / or an inert gas.

4. The method, in particular according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the gas mixture contains an organic compound and carbon monoxide and / or carbon dioxide and / or ammonia and / or nitrogen and / or another nitrogen-containing gas.

5. The method, in particular according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that a hydrocarbon compound having up to a maximum of eight carbon atoms is used as the organic compound.

6. The method, in particular according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the proportion of organic compound in the gas mixture is between 5 to 90% by volume. - 13 -

7. The method, in particular according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that an alkane is used, such as methane, ethane, propane, butane, pentane and / or hexane.

8. The method, in particular according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that an alkene is used as the organic compound, such as ethylene, butylene, propylene, isopropylene etc.

9. The method, in particular according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the process gas additionally contains ammonia, nitrogen or some other nitrogen-containing gas.

10. The method, in particular according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that acetylene or a derivative of acetylene is used as the organic compound.

11. The method, in particular according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that a polyene, a mono- or polyhydric alcohol, a mono- or polyvalent carboxylic acid, ether, aldehyde and / or a ketone is used as the organic compound.

12. The method, in particular according to one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that an aliphatic, aliphatic-cyclic and / or aromatic hydrocarbon is used.

13. The method, in particular according to one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that a substituted hydrocarbon compound is used as the organic compound. - 14 -

14. The method, in particular according to claim 13, characterized in that a fluorine, nitrogen or sulfur-substituted hydrocarbon compound is used as the organic compound.

15. Use of the method according to one of claims 1 to 14 for the coating of packaging materials, such as in particular films, bottles, containers and the like.

16. Use of the method according to one of claims 1 or 3 to 14 for the coating of ceramic or metallic substrates and of substrates consisting of reinforced polymers, such as in particular with ceramic fibers, glass fibers, polymer fibers and / or carbon fiber-reinforced polymers.

17. Use of the method according to one of claims 1 to 14 for the production of a coating on a substrate, such as a polymer, a ceramic, metallic substrate or a substrate consisting of fiber-reinforced polymer for bonding to composite materials.

18. Coating of a polymeric substrate, produced by means of a method according to one of claims 1 to 14, characterized in that the coating is polar and contains hydroxyl, carboxyl, carbonyl groups and / or NO _x -containing groups and long-term stable has hydrophilic properties.

19. Use of the method according to one of claims 1 to 14 for coating a powder or granules, in order to subsequently produce a polar film or a polar shaped body from this powder or granulate. - 15 -

20. Use according to claim 19, characterized in that the powder or granulate consists in particular essentially of a polyester material.