Treating polymeric surfaces

Claim 1

A process for changing the properties of a surface of a shaped organic polymeric material, said surface containing carbon to hydrogen bonds having a dissociation energy of less than about 100 K cal./mol, said process comprising exposing said surface to a stream of a mixture of (1) a reactive gas selected from the group consisting of (a) N 2 O 3 , (b) water vapor and (c) a vapor of an organic compound which is an acid, an alcohol, an ester, an amine, a nitrile or a vinyl compound having a vinyl moiety activated by an adjacent electronegative group, said gas having a partial pressure of at least 0.001 mm. Hg. at a temperature in the range of about 10 to about 150°C., with (2) an activator gas selected from the group consisting of argon, helium, krypton, neon, nitrogen, radon, xenon and mixtures thereof, said stream of gases having been activated by treating with a radio frequency electromagnetic field ranging from about 1/2 to about 30,000 megahertz and said field being remote from said support, said process being conducted at a pressure of about 0.01 to about 20 mm Hg., said acid being an aliphatic or aromatic mono- or dicarboxylic acid having up to about 10 carbon atoms, said alcohol being aliphatic mono- or polyol or a phenol having up to about 10 carbon atoms, said ester being an ester being derived from said acid and an aliphatic monohydroxy alcohol having less than 6 carbon atoms, said amine being primary, secondary or tertiary aliphatic or aromatic amine having up to 20 carbon atoms, said nitrile being an aromatic or aliphatic cyano-substituted compound having up to about 10 carbon atoms, and said vinyl compound being a compound having a vinyl, vinylene or vinylidene group attached to a carbonyl, sulfonyl, cyano, formyl, carboxy, halogen or nitro group.