Investigations on the reactive surface modification of polycarbonate by surface-reactive injection molding

A new procedure of surface modification was investigated in which the modification was coupled with the injection molding process. This procedure could save other commonly used surface modification procedures such as flame or plasma treatment. According to the procedure, a reactive modifier was applied to the surface of the mold cavity. On injection of the plastic melt, a chemical reaction took place, which attaches the modifier covalently to the resultant plastic part. In this contribution, conditions are considered for the modification of polycarbonate with poly(vinyl alcohol) and polyethylenimine as modifiers. The reaction in the melt was investigated and the modified sur-faces of injection-molded plates were characterized. The surface modification, realized with the new approach, was permanent. It allows for the introduction of special functional groups, which may be useful for further reactive processing stages such as reactive adhesive joining, reactive coating, metallization, or functionalization for special applications. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.