Plasma surface technology promoting capillary impregnation of wood: XPS analysis of different plasma pretreated wood surfaces

Abstract: X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) also referred to as Electron Spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) was used to characterize the surfaces of plasma-chemical treated wood in air by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). The plasma-surface pre-treatment of wood, wooden products and cellulosic fibrous materials has been developed for promoting capillary impregnation and plasma-aided flame retardency. In this study, XPS has been used since it has proved to be suitable investigation method to characterize the composition of a plasma pre-treated material surface. This method is a powerful analytical and non-destructive technique which has already been used for the analysis of plasma modified wood surfaces and in the characterization of wood’s reactions. Changes due to the plasma-chemical process were identified from the survey large spectra as well as from the detailed C1s and O1s spectra. The oxidative changes were quantified with the atomic ratio of oxygen to carbon and with a detailed analysis of the contributions to the C1s and O1s peaks.