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Plasma treatment switches the regime of wetting and floating of pepper seeds

2017; Elsevier BV; Volume: 157; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.colsurfb.2017.06.006

1873-4367

Yekaterina Shapira, Victor Multanen, Gene Whyman, Yelena Bormashenko, Gilad Chaniel, Zahava Barkay, Edward Bormashenko,

Advanced Data Storage Technologies

Cold radiofrequency plasma treatment modified wetting and floating regimes of pepper seeds. The wetting regime of plasma-treated seeds was switched from the Wenzel-like partial wetting to the complete wetting. No hydrophobic recovery following the plasma treatment was registered. Environmental scanning electron microscopy of the fine structure of the (three-phase) triple line observed with virgin and plasma-treated seeds is reported. Plasma treatment promoted rapid sinking of pepper seeds placed on the water/air interface. Plasma treatment did not influence the surface topography of pepper seeds, while charged them electrically. Electrostatic repulsion of floating plasma-treated seeds was observed. The surface charge density was estimated from the data extracted from floating of charged seeds and independently with the electrostatic pendulum as σ ≈ 1 − 2 μC/m2.