Gas phase and surface chemistry of dielectric barrier discharge plasmas

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Resolution plays a very important role in defining the value of a xerographic image. For a given printing system, the attainable resolution depends on the condition of the photoreceptor. In service, a plasma sustained between the photoreceptor and a contact charge roller deposits the charge distribution onto which the xerographic process writes a latent image. This plasma breaks bonds in the polymer that forms the photoreceptor charge-transfer layer, affecting its properties. The details of this are unknown, but it is clear that as a photoreceptor ages it loses resolution. This loss of resolution has a major effect on xerographic cartridge lifecycle, with enormous economic and environmental consequences. Thus, society could realize great benefit from more durable photoreceptors, engineered to resist plasma damage. Progress along these lines will require material and molecular probes that both increase our understanding of the mechanism of photoreceptor degradation and serve to classify the resistant properties of engineering prototypes. The present proposal calls for the development of novel instrument systems together with a suite of new analytical tools that characterize electrophotographic dielectric barrier discharge plasmas and their effects on photoreceptor integrity. These instrument systems will integrate confocal Raman spectroscopy with bright-field micrographic imaging to spectrochemically isolate and classify domains of altered photoreceptor composition and morphology. Sophisticated chemometrics data-processing strategies, employing wavelet transform and template-guided genetic-algorithm (TOGA) feature selection with multivariate classification will extract maximum analytical information from raw Raman spectra, interferometric images and their covariance. Direct probes of the CCR-photoreceptor plasma by means of optical emission spectroscopy and mass spectrometry will characterize the chemical effects of dielectric barrier discharges. Gauging these measures of plasma character and photoreceptor modification against xerographic resolution will determine the most sensitive predictors of image degradation and help in the understanding of its causes.