Physicochemical Characteristics of Solvent Vapor Bonded Polycarbonate

In this investigation attempt have been made to develop high throughput state of the art vaporized solvent bonding of transparent polymer such as polycarbonate. Focus has also been given to understand the influence of aggressive chemical environments on the interface and bond strengths. Different solvents such as acetone, dichloromethane, methyl ethyl ketone and chloroform have been used for vaporized solvent bonding of the polymer. Dichloromethane appears to be the best solvent for polycarbonate because the solubility parameter of dichloromethane closely matches with polycarbonate. Therefore, due to stable molecular structure of polycarbonate under vaporized solvent bonding, it is ensured that the physicochemical interaction between polycarbonate and solvent vapor resists the failure of bond when exposed to aggressive environment such as under Ringer's solution. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy peak indicates the presence of phenolic O-H functionality, which may attribute to ion induced-dipole interaction of solvents with polycarbonate. There is a considerable increase in bond strength with increasing pressure and scanning electron microscopy images clearly reveals that failure of solvent vapor bonded polycarbonate is essentially cohesive from the polymer resulting in significant improvement in bond strength.