Study and optimization of water repellence stability in fluoroacrylate photopolymers

Fluoropolymers have attracted a lot of attention in the past 20 years mainly due to their hydrophobic properties. Unfortunately, they have also shown some stability issues mainly in hot water due to the easy disorganization of the fluorine chains. In this paper Confocal Raman Microscopy (CRM) has been used as an indirect probe to optimize the fluoroacrylate content in an acrylic photocurable resin in order to reduce the effect of hot water. Advancing and receding contact angles have also been measured to characterize the surface repellence both before and after immersion in hot water. Results show that despite an improvement of the stability of the fluoroacrylate coating with a careful selection of the concentration range, water still has a negative effect on the surface properties of the coating. This effect can be partly counterbalanced by successive thermal annealings at 100 °C which help to stabilize the hydrophobicity of the coating.