Plasma etching of polypropylene films and fibres

Abstract

The introduction of a ∼1000 Å scale corrugated structure, aligned perpendicular to the filament axis, into oriented semi-crystalline polymers on plasma etching is shown to result from restructuring of the partially etched surface and not, as has previously been proposed, to correspond to morphological detail in the unetched material. The detail exposed on plasma etching polypropylene is shown to vary extensively with the etching conditions used. The exposed surface is compared with those resulting from peeling and chromic acid etching. Plasma etching is, however, shown to be useful in exposing coarse morphological detail such as spherulites, and in providing a convenient route for rapidly stripping the polymeric sample. The restructured partially etched surface may then be removed easily by, for example, a brief chromic acid treatment, exposing the sample interior to microscopic examination.