Fluorinated Polymers. Synthesis And Surface Characterization

M.E. PENOFF; R. LIAÑO; P. A. OYANGUREN; P.E. MONTEMARTINI

Congreso; 11TH EUROPEAN SYMPOSIUM ON POLYMER BLENDS; 2012

University of The Basque Country (UPV-EHU)

The main interest in this work is the synthesis and characterization of fluorinated polymers suitable for their application as functional coatings, because they present a series of surface properties such as high hydrophobicity, oleophobicity, low surface energy, low coefficients of friction, etc. Moreover, this can be achieved by the introduction of very low percentages of fluorine, which considerably reduces their cost with respect to the commercially available fluorinated polymers. Not only the chemical composition of these materials is necessary to accomplish the properties desired, but also their morphologies and structure, which are studied in this work. All the polymers synthesized showed a fluorine surface enrichment, confirmed by XPS measurements, and higher contact angles with water with the increment of the surface atomic F/C ratio. Although phase images from AFM technique are commonly used to study the stiffness of the material, when operating at light force tapping of the ratio of amplitudes with range 0.8?0.9, the phase imaging derives the chemical resolution from hydrophilicity differences of the phase at the surface [4,5,6]. This technique was employed to study the distribution of fluorine in the modified materials surfaces. Higher water contact angles were found in samples where a difference in the surface hydrophylicity was detected.