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Article: Plasma: the fourth state of matter.(finishing)
- Article from:
- British Plastics & Rubber
- Article date:
- February 1, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Euro Publishing Consultancy. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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PLASMA is the name given to matter at a high, unstable energy level. Energy, in the form of heat, added to a material takes it through the states of solid to liquid to gaseous. Plasma technology does not stop at gaseous: additional energy from an electric discharge fed into the material, adds kinetic energy to the electrons, causing them to leave their atomic shells. Free electrons, ions and molecular fragments are produced which can be harnessed to modify the surface of a material with which they come into contact. This is plasma.
But the process is hard to use at normal pressure because of its instability, so has to be carried out under vacuum, which works ...