HOT AIR TREATMENT OF POLY(ETHYLENE-TEREPHTHALATE) FILMS - EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL VERIFICATIONS OF THE DECARBOXYLATION HYPOTHESIS

Because of its industrial importance, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) has been the subject of numerous studies concerning surface modification by heat treatment. Though many experimental results are available, there are some uncertainties about the mechanisms leading to these modifications. In this work, a specific heat treatment (dynamic hot air flow) is performed on PET films. Various methods (contact angle, XPS, ISS) have been used to quantify the magnitude of induced structural and morphological modifications. A thermochemical analysis based on heat transfer is proposed to assess the validity of the supposed decarboxylation process.