TY - JOUR A1 - Rychkov, Dmitry A1 - Kuznetsov, Alexey A1 - Rychkov, Andrey T1 - Electret properties of polyethylene and polytetrafluoroethylene films with chemically modified surface JF - IEEE transactions on dielectrics and electrical insulation N2 - This paper investigates the effect of chemical surface modification of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) films on their electret properties. PTFE films were subjected to wet treatment with three different chemicals: orthophosphoric acid, tetrabutyl titanate and tetraethoxysilane. The technique based on the principles of molecular layer deposition (MLD) method was used to modify the surface of LDPE films with phosphorus trichloride vapors. The surfaces of the films were then corona charged, and the electret charge stability was studied by means of isothermal and thermally stimulated surface potential decay. Both PTFE and LDPE films, after the surface treatment, displayed a considerable enhancement in the charge stability compared to the virgin samples. It is important to note that the enhancement of the charge stability was achieved in the positively charged PTFE films, a result important to practical applications. We attribute this effect of charge stabilization to the formation of new energetically deep traps on the modified surface. Decrease in molecular mobility, due to attachment of new chemical structures to the surface macromolecules, may also contribute to the overall growth of the charge stability. KW - Electrets KW - surface treatment KW - charge stability KW - charge carrier processes KW - polytetrafluoroethylene KW - polyethylene Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/TDEI.2011.5704487 SN - 1070-9878 VL - 18 IS - 1 SP - 8 EP - 14 PB - Inst. of Electr. and Electronics Engineers CY - Piscataway ER -