The wettability of polytetrafluoroethylene and polymethyl methacrylate by aqueous solution of two cationic surfactants mixture

Advancing contact angle (θ  ) measurements were carried out for aqueous solutions of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and cetylpyridinium bromide (CPyB) mixtures on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). The obtained results indicate that the wettability of PTFE and PMMA by aqueous solutions of CTAB and CPyB mixtures depends on the composition and concentration of the mixture; however, synergism in the wettability does not exist. In the range of low concentrations of aqueous solution mixtures there is a linear dependence between the contact angle and composition of the mixtures, but at a concentration close to CMC a deviation from linear dependence is observed. In contrast to Zisman, there is no linear dependence between cosθcosθ and the surface tension of aqueous solution of CTAB and CPyB mixtures, but a linear dependence exists between the adhesional and surface tension, and these lines have a slope −1 and −0.34 for PTFE and PMMA, respectively, which suggests that adsorption of CTAB and CPyB mixtures at water–air and PTFE–water is the same, and the orientation of the CTAB and CPyB molecules at both interfaces in the saturated monolayer should also be the same. Adsorption of these mixtures at water–air interface is considerably higher than at PMMA–water interface, and CTAB and CPyB molecules should be parallelly oriented to PMMA surface in the saturated monolayer. Extrapolation of the straight lines to the points corresponding to the surface tension of aqueous solution, which completely spreads over the PTFE and PMMA surface, gives a critical surface tension of wetting equal to 23.44 and 33.13 mN/m, respectively. The value of 23.44 mN/m is higher than that of the surface tension of PTFE, but the value of 33.13 is lower than that of Lifshitz–van der Waals components of PMMA surface tension. On the basis of the critical surface tension, the surface tension of PTFE and PMMA, the Young equation, and thermodynamic analysis of the adhesion work of aqueous solution of surfactant to polymer surface, it was found that for PTFE and PMMA the changes of the contact angle of aqueous solution of two cationic surfactants mixtures on their surfaces as a function of the solution concentration resulted only from the decrease of the polar component of the solution surface tension.

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