The Growth Behavior of Amorphous Hydrogenated Carbon a-C:H Layers on Industrial Polycarbonates—A Weak Interlayer and a Distinct Dehydrogenation Zone

Abstract

Polycarbonate (PC) is a material that is used in many areas: automotive, aerospace engineering and data storage industries. Its hardness is of particular importance, but some applications are affected by its low wettability or scratch susceptibility. This can be changed either by blending with other polymers, or by surface modifications, such as the application of an amorphous hydrogenated carbon layer (a-C:H). In this study, individual a-C:H layers of different thicknesses (10–2000 nm) were deposited on PC by RF PECVD. Both the layer morphology with AFM and SEM and the bonding states of the carbon on the surface with synchrotron-assisted XPS and NEXAFS were studied. The aim was to investigate the coatability of PC and the stability of the a-C:H. Special attention was paid to the interlayer region from 0 to 100 nm, since this is responsible for the layer to base material bonding, and to the zone of dehydrogenation (from about 1000 nm), since this changes the surface composition considerably. For PC, the interlayer was relatively small with a thickness of only 20 nm. Additionally, a correlation was found between the evolving grain structure and the development of the C‒H peak according to NEXAFS C K-edge measurements.