Plasma Science and Technology

In a systematic and comprehensive manner, this book describes the science of low-temperature plasma—a new field that is emerging at a fast pace. An expert well known in this field gives a coherent overview of the applications of low-temperature plasmas to chemical reactions, and in greater detail, to polymers formed or treated in plasma.

After laying the groundwork with chapters on the nature of plasma and the variety of typical reactions that occur in discharges, the author deals with specific applications in the production of polymers. He then devotes a chapter each to the deposition of films, the nature of polymers produced in plasmas, and the specific properties of polymers, with a concluding chapter on additional applications of plasma technology.

Herman Boenig emphasizes thin-film depositions—their high quality and integrity, as well as their applications in a variety of industrially important uses, including microcircuitry, integrated optics, and metal and other material coatings. He also discusses extensively the applications of plasma deposition in other areas such as high adhesion to metals, polymers, and glasses; high temperature resistance; special friction characteristics; and use in reverse osmosis, permselectivity, and other membrane applications. In a special chapter he covers the use of plasma in ion implantations, plasma cleaning of materials surfaces, and the technique now being considered for use in devices to clean polluted air and convert waste products in submarines and space capsules.

Plasma Science and Technology should prove invaluable as a text for graduate students and advanced undergraduates, and as a reference for chemists, material scientists, metallurgists, environmental scientists, engineers, and physicists. It will be of particular interest to those involved in microcircuitry, microcomputers, integrated optics, optical equipment, desalination, biomedicine, thin films, adhesion, ion implantation, textile treatment, advanced composites, and chemical synthesis.