Nanoscale surface processing of extrusion coated substrates and plastic films with atmospheric plasma activation and deposition

PlasmaNice - Atmospheric Plasmas for Nanoscale Industrial Surface Processing - is a four-year project funded by the European Union 7th RTD Framework Programme in the context of the NMP - Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies. The project focuses on studying the utilisation of atmospheric plasma techniques for packaging applications. The main objective is to develop sustainable packaging materials and equipment for on-line atmospheric plasma deposition of functional nanoscale coatings on various fiber- and polymer-based substrates. The project aims to combine and integrate state-of-the-art in atmospheric plasma technology, sol-gel chemistry and extrusion coating of Jo-based and/or biodegradable materials. Atmospheric plasma techniques as processing methods have a number of advantages which include for example a possibility to tailor the surface chemistry at the nanometer level. As such, the plasma treatments are energy efficient, reproducible and environmentally clean. In surface modification of materials, plasmas can be used e.g. to activation, cleaning, etching and coating. In plasma activation functional chemical groups are created to the surface of the treated material. For packaging materials plasma activation can be used to enhance adhesion properties, wettability and printability of surfaces. In plasma deposition, a completely new surface is created which enables the possibility to create barrier coatings from precursor such as e.g. sol-gels chemistry. In the PlasmaNice project, non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasmas will be used for altering the surface properties of fiber- and polymer-based substrates. The atmospheric plasma devices used in the project are based on the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactors, which enable low temperature plasma treatment which is suitable even for heat-sensitive materials such as polymer films. Dielectric barrier can also be scaled up to larger dimensions for on-line processes such as paper converting at low costs compared to vacuum plasma processes. This project aims to transfer atmospheric plasma processing technology from the laboratory scale to industrial level in the packaging industry. Special attention will go out to the very promising combination with sol-gel technology. A method and equipment for in-line plasma deposition of high-barrier bio-based coatings to be applied in conjunction with extrusion coating at industrial line speeds will be developed. Furthermore, an important part of PlasmaNice project is also to study the health and safety aspects of nanotechnology in plasma-assisted processes. LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) and RA (Risk Assessment) will be used in the project to evaluate the safety aspects and environmental performance of the new products and processes. To achieve these objectives, several leading European institutes and universities in atmospheric plasma deposition technology (VITO and TUE), sol-gel development (FhG-ISC and VTT), extrusion coating (TUT), analytics development (JSI) and life cycle and safety analysis (DTU and 2B) together with a range of industrial participants are incorporated in the project.