Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Deposition of Adhesion Promotion Layers on Aluminium

The paper presents investigations on the deposition of plasma polymerised films at atmospheric pressure as a pretreatment for painting and adhesive bonding of aircraft aluminium structures. Two different plasma jet sources are employed, one based on a controlled arc discharge and air as process gas, and another based on a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) and He as plasma gas. The organosilicon precursors HMDSO, TEOS and OMCTS are used with both plasma sources. Deposition in the arc discharge plasma jet leads to almost carbon-free silica coatings, whereas coatings deposited with the DBD jet source contain a high amount of carbon, varying with precursor type. The obtained results of corrosion investigations and adhesion tests are promising, as some representative aircraft industry requirements could be achieved. However, the investigations show a strong dependency on the used precursor and type of polymer (paint or adhesive) applied on the plasma polymerised film.