The cleaning of surfaces plays an important role in industrial practice, e.g. in increasing the adhesive strength of coatings. Wet-chemical cleaning processes leave traces of the cleaning agent or solvent on the surface, which cannot be completely removed even with good rinsing and drying.
With low-pressure plasma technology, however, surfaces can be achieved that are free of organic contaminants. Treatment times of just a few minutes already lead to very good results, with almost no residue remaining on the surfaces. It is advantageous that the low-pressure plasma has a very high gap mobility. This means that even intricately shaped components can be perfectly cleaned in the plasma, as the gas also penetrates into small cavities that cannot be reached by liquids.
The decisive factor for the cleaning effect in the plasma is the formation of gaseous and therefore volatile products, which can be easily removed from the sample chamber. The components of the plasma react with the organic impurities and are degraded to water and carbon dioxide at room temperature: (-CH2-CH2-)n + 3n O2 “ 2n CO2 + 2n H2O.