Thermal reactive modifications of polymer surfaces by infrared laser radiation

This review offers an evaluation of research on the thermal reactive modification of polymer surfaces by infrared (IR) laser radiation with a major concern on highlighting and classifying ablative and non-ablative laser irradiations of polymer surfaces. The IR laser-induced reactive changes in polymer structure and composition are compared to those achieved by conventional heating of polymer bulks and films positioned on substrates and dissimilarities of both types of processes are argued to result from specific features of laser-supplied heat and laser-circumvented polymer-substrate interactions. Such complete evaluation is still missing in the literature and has been compiled to demonstrate that IR laser radiation is a potent tool for specific modifications of the chemical structure of polymer surfaces and that its further use is a challenge to achieve new goals in polymer research.