Optical Properties of Surface Modified Polypropylene by Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation Technique

Sk. Faruque Ahmed, Myoung-Woon Moon, Changsoo Kim, Youn-Jun Jang, Seonghee Han, Jin-Young Choi, Won-Woong Park and Kwang-Ryeol Lee

The optical bandgap and activation energy of polypropylene (PP) induced by an Ar plasma immersion ion implantation technique were studied in detail. It was revealed that the structural alternation with an increase of polymer chain cross-linking in the ion beam affected layer enhanced the optical properties of PP. The optical bandgap, calculated from the transmittance spectra, decreased from 3.44 to 2.85 eV with the Ar plasma ion energy from 10 to 50 KeV. The activation energy, determined from the band tail of the transmittance spectra, decreased while the electrical conductivity increased with the Ar plasma ion energy.