Plasma surface modification of polymer powders with application to thermal energy storage

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Abstract
The rotating bed plasma reactor described here permits uniform surface modification of relatively large amounts of powder materials. Scale‐up to even larger batches of solids appears to be feasible. Some preliminary experimental data on the plasma surface modification of polymer powders have been presented. The results show that the flow rate, time of treatment, and type of feed gas are important operating parameters which influence the final surface character. One particular application of plasma‐modified polymer powders was explored; by crosslinking and/or chemically modifying only the outermost surface regions of these powders, various polymeric materials may be rendered useful for use in thermal storage slurries. The major advantage of the surface‐modified plasma treated powders over the bulk‐modified powders used previously is the retention of essentially all of the pristine polymer heat of fusion in the surface‐modified materials.