Design, Characterization and Optimization of Plasma Assisted Processes for the Treatment and Synthesis of High Value-Added Materials

Plasma assisted processes are a fundamental technology for the production of high valued-added materials. To meet the ever-changing demands for this kind of materials, the investigation and the optimization of plasma assisted processes is a fundamental issue. In this perspective, research activities must be carried out both for the more established plasma technologies and for the promising Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) sources. This dissertation, organized in three main parts, is focused on the characterization and development of plasma assisted process and sources to produce high value-added materials. In the first part an integrated approach for the design and optimization of processes assisted by low power atmospheric pressure Radio Frequency (RF) thermal plasmas, based on the analysis and comparison of numerical and experimental results, is presented. The development of two processes performed by means of CAPs to modify the wettability of polymers are described in the second part. The first process concerns the functionalization of polymeric films; the second one the deposition of a hydrophobic coating on natural textiles. In the last part, the results achieved on the design and development of processes assisted by cold plasmas (whether low pressure or atmospheric pressure) for the realization of antibacterial coatings are presented.