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、稳健、高效和环保的塑料和金属表面处理工艺，这种工艺可以很容易地融入制造环境。 该环境新技术项目将强调高风险/高回报的探索性可行性研究，研究在空气中使用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、溶剂和清洁剂清洁方法的替代技术，以准备表面进行喷漆和/或粘合。 UV源将用空气中具有足够能量和强度的光子照射表面，以产生原子氧和臭氧，从而既分解表面污染物又氧化和增加被照射表面的表面能。 如果这一过程可以实现，它将导致减少挥发性有机化合物;减少洗涤剂污染的废水;和减少细颗粒。该技术还具有通过其能源效率而非常具有成本效益的潜力。 正在进行的初步研究表明，这一过程对各种聚合物和金属表面具有潜在的普遍性。 该项目这一部分的研究将针对这一过程的基本科学和工程方面，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因素。

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.