Surface modification of polymers via molecular design for adhesion promotion

New molecular functionalities were incorporated onto the argon plasma pretreated poly(tetrafluoroethylene) and other fluoropolymer films via surface graft copolymerization with functional monomers. The molecularly redesigned fluoropolymer surfaces exhibited significantly enhanced adhesion with metals and with other similarly modified fluoropolymer surfaces. Five interfacial reactions schemes for the adhesion enhancement were demonstrated in this work, viz., (i) surface graft copolymerization with concurrent lamination of two fluoropolymer films, (ii) surface modification of a fluoropolymer by graft copolymerization with simultaneous lamination to a metal foil, (iii) surface modification of fluoropolymers by single and double graft copolymerizations for adhesion enhancement with evaporated metals, (iv) surface modification of fluoropolymer by graft copolymerization for adhesive-promoted adhesion with metal foils, and (v) adhesion improvement of the noble metal/fluoropolymer laminates via simultaneous graft polymerization on the activated metal surfaces and copolymerization on the activated polymer surfaces, during lamination.