Surface analysis of plasma‐treated polydimethylsiloxane by x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and surface voltage decay

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Abstract
Surface states of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) treated by plasma were investigated by x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and surface voltage decay. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the formation of a silica‐like (SiOx, x = 3–4) oxidative surface layer. This layer increased in thickness with increasing exposure duration of plasma. Plasma exposure lowers the surface resistivity from 1.78 × 1014 to 1.09 × 1013 Ω □−1 with increasing plasma treatment time. By measuring the decay time constant of surface voltage, the calculated surface resistivity was compared with the value measured directly by a voltage–current method; good agreement between the two methods was obtained. It was observed that plasma treatment led to a decrease in the thermal activation energy of the surface conduction from 31.0 kJ mol−1 for an untreated specimen to 21.8 kJ mol−1 for a plasma‐treated specimen for 1 h. Our results allow the examination of effects of plasma on the electrical properties of PDMS. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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