abstract

• Polypropylene (PP) particles are used for various purposes, however, the good mechanical properties of PP are counterbalanced by a poor wettability. The wettability of PP particles was therefore improved by an atmospheric pressure blown-arc air plasma jet treatment in a new designed homemade Wurster fluidized bed reactor (Wurster-FBR). This reactor, was used to treat 200 g of particles per batch. The surface free energy of PP particles determined by the Zisman method showed an increase from 30.7 to 38.6 mN m−1 after 120 s of treatment. XPS results showed a 5%25 increase of the atomic concentration of oxygen on the surface of the treated particles. In order to describe the process, a 2D axisymmetric non-isothermal k-ϵ turbulent model was used to determine the velocity field, pressure, and temperature profile of the gas phase inside the reactor. Furthermore an Eulerian-Eulerian multiphasic CFD model was added to determine the dynamics of the particles inside the reactor, and the results were compared with fast imaging, thermocouple, and anemometry measurements. These investigations are very important to monitor the homogeneity of the particle treatments, to determine the average effective treatment time for each particle and to avoid overheating of thermally sensitive PP. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH %26 Co. KGaA, Weinheim
• Polypropylene (PP) particles are used for various purposes, however, the good mechanical properties of PP are counterbalanced by a poor wettability. The wettability of PP particles was therefore improved by an atmospheric pressure blown-arc air plasma jet treatment in a new designed homemade Wurster fluidized bed reactor (Wurster-FBR). This reactor, was used to treat 200 g of particles per batch. The surface free energy of PP particles determined by the Zisman method showed an increase from 30.7 to 38.6 mN m−1 after 120 s of treatment. XPS results showed a 5%25 increase of the atomic concentration of oxygen on the surface of the treated particles. In order to describe the process, a 2D axisymmetric non-isothermal k-ϵ turbulent model was used to determine the velocity field, pressure, and temperature profile of the gas phase inside the reactor. Furthermore an Eulerian-Eulerian multiphasic CFD model was added to determine the dynamics of the particles inside the reactor, and the results were compared with fast imaging, thermocouple, and anemometry measurements. These investigations are very important to monitor the homogeneity of the particle treatments, to determine the average effective treatment time for each particle and to avoid overheating of thermally sensitive PP. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

authors

• Anagri A.
• Arefi-Khonsari F.
• Leturia M.
• Moscosa Santillán Mario
• Moussalem A.
• Pulpytel J.
• Saleh K.
• Tabibian S.
• Touari Y.

publication date

• 2018-01-01

published in

• Plasma Processes and Polymers  Journal

keywords

• atmospheric pressure plasma; CFD modeling; polymer surface treatment and coating technology; Wurster fluidised-bed reactor Atmospheric pressure; Chemical reactors; Fluidized bed furnaces; Free energy; Plasma jets; Polypropylenes; Supersaturation; Surface treatment; Thermocouples; Velocity; Wetting; Anemometry measurements; Atmospheric pressure plasma jets; Atmospheric pressure plasmas; CFD modeling; Coating technologies; Experimental investigations; Fluidised bed reactors; Fluidized bed reactors; Fluidized beds

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1002/ppap.201800071

start page

end page

volume

• 15

issue

• 11