Effect of two hydrocarbon and one fluorocarbon surfactant mixtures on the surface tension and wettability of polymers

• Surface tension of polymers is influenced by the fluorocarbon surfactant layers.
• Density of the adsorbed mixed layer for PMMA is lower than for PTFE.
• Water molecules are present in the mixed layer of surfactants on polymers.

The advancing contact angle of water, formamide and diiodomethane on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) surfaces covered with the film of ternary mixtures of surfactants including p-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl) phenoxypoly(ethyleneglycols), Triton X-100 (TX100) and Triton X-165 (TX165) and the fluorocarbon surfactants, Zonyl FSN-100 (FSN100) or Zonyl FSO-100 (FSO100) was measured. The obtained results were used for the surface tension of PTFE and PMMA covered with this film determination from the Young equation on the basis of van Oss et al. and Neumann et al. approaches to the interfacial tension. The surface tension of PTFE and PMMA was also determined using the Neumann et al. equation and the contact angle values for the aqueous solutions of the above mentioned ternary surfactants mixtures which were taken from the literature. As follows from our calculations mainly the presence of the fluorocarbon surfactant in the mixture considerably changes the surface properties of PTFE and PMMA causing that in contrast to hydrocarbon surfactants and their mixtures there is no linear dependence between adhesion and surface tension in the whole range of concentration of the ternary mixtures of surfactants including the fluorocarbon one. The behavior of fluorocarbon surfactants at the polymer–air and polymer–water interfaces is quite different from those of hydrocarbons. In the case of fluorocarbon surfactants not only adsorption but also sorption can occur on the polymer surface.

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