Medicinal inhalation devices and components thereof

1. A method of making a medicinal inhalation device or a component of a medicinal inhalation device comprising:

a) forming a non-metal coating on at least a portion of a surface of the device or the component, respectively, said coating having at least one functional group;

b) applying to at least a portion of a surface of the non-metal coating a composition comprising an at least partially fluorinated compound comprising at least one functional group; and

c) allowing at least one functional group of the at least partially fluorinated compound to react with at least one functional group of the non-metal coating to form a covalent bond.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said at least one functional group of the non-metal coating has an active hydrogen.

3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the non-metal coating is formed by plasma deposition.

4. A method according to claim 3 , wherein the non-metal coating is formed by plasma deposition under ion bombardment conditions.

5. A method according claim 1 , wherein the non-metal coating comprises silicon, oxygen and hydrogen.

6. A method according to claim 5 , wherein the non-metal coating further comprises carbon.

7. A method according to claim 6 , wherein the non-metal coating comprises a micro-hardness of at least 1 GPa comprising on a hydrogen free basis at least about 20 atomic percent carbon and at least about 30 atomic percent of silicon+oxygen.

8. A method according to claim 5 , wherein the silicon to oxygen ratio in the non-metal coating is less than two.

9. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said at least partially fluorinated compound is selected from: (i) a compound that comprises a hydrolysable group; (ii) a compound that comprises a silane group; (iii) a compound that comprises a polyfluoropolyether segment; and (iv) a compound that comprises a polyfluoropolyether silane.

10. A method according to claim 9 , wherein said at least partially fluorinated compound comprises a polyfluoropolyether segment, wherein the polyfluoropolyether segment has weight average molecular weight of about 1000 or higher and/or is a perfluorinated polyfluoropolyether segment, wherein the repeating units of the perfluorinated polyfluoropolyether segment the number of carbon atoms in sequence is at most 6.

11. A medicinal inhalation device or a component of a medicinal inhalation device comprising a non-metal coating on at least a portion of a surface of the device or the component, respectively, and a fluorine-containing coating bonded to the non-metal coating wherein the fluorine-containing coating comprises an at least partially fluorinated compound comprising at least one functional group which shares at least one covalent bond with the non-metal coating.

12. A device or a component according to claim 11 , wherein the fluorine-containing coating is covalently bonded to the non-metal coating through a plurality of covalent bonds, in particular a plurality of covalent bonds including bonds in O—Si groups, more particularly bonds in Si—O—Si groups.

13. A medicinal inhalation device or a component of a medicinal inhalation device comprising a non-metal coating plasma deposited on at least a portion of a surface of the device or the component, respectively, said coating being plasma deposited under ion bombardment conditions and comprising about 1 atomic percent of fluorine or less.

14. A medicinal inhalation device or a component of a medicinal inhalation device comprising a coating comprising a micro-hardness of at least 1 GPa on at least a portion of a surface of the device or the component, respectively.