NTE: Ultraviolet (UV) Light Surface Treatment of Polymers and Metals - An Environmentally Benign Manufacturing Process for Enhanced Paint and Adhesive Performance

人们越来越需要一种快速、强大、高效和环保的表面处理工艺，用于塑料和金属，这些表面处理工艺可以很容易地融入制造环境。这个环境新技术项目将强调高风险/高回报，探索性可行性研究，研究使用空气中的紫外线清洁和表面处理聚合物和金属表面的能力，作为磨损、溶剂和洗涤剂清洁方法的替代技术，以准备表面喷漆和/或粘合剂粘合。紫外线光源将用足够能量和强度的光子照射表面，在空气中产生原子氧和臭氧，从而分解表面污染物并氧化并增加被照射表面的表面能。如果这一过程能够完成，将导致挥发性有机化合物的减少；减少洗涤剂污染的废水；细颗粒物的减少。这项技术也有潜力，通过它的能源效率是非常经济有效的。正在进行的初步研究表明，该工艺在各种聚合物和金属表面上具有普遍存在的潜力。该项目的这一部分的研究将针对这一过程的基础科学和工程方面，这将允许在可持续材料流中考虑成本和有效材料再利用的生命周期。

There is a growing need for a fast, robust, efficient and environmentally benign surface treatment process for plastics and metals that can be easily incorporated into the manufacturing environment. This New Technologies for the Environment project will emphasize high risk/high return, exploratory feasibility study into the ability to use UV light, in air, to clean and surface treat polymer and metals surfaces as a replacement technology for abrasion, solvent and detergent based cleaning methods to prepare surfaces to painting and/or adhesive bonding. The UV source will illuminate a surface with photons of sufficient energy and intensity in air to create atomic oxygen and ozone to both decompose surface contaminants and oxidize and increase the surface energy of the surface being illuminated. If this process could be accomplished, it would result in a reduction in VOCs; a reduction in detergent fouled waste water; and a reduction in fine particulates. This technology also has the potential to be very cost effective through its energy efficiency. Preliminary research being conducted has shown the potential ubiquitous nature of this process to a large variety of polymer and metal surfaces. Research in this portion of the project will be directed at the fundamental scientific and engineering aspects of this process which would allow life-cycle considerations for costs and efficient materials reuse in a sustainable materials stream.