Towards understanding hydrophobic recovery of plasma treated polymers: Storing in high polarity liquids suppresses hydrophobic recovery

Edward Bormashenko, Gilad Chaniel, Roman Grynyov

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

76 Scopus citations

Abstract

The phenomenon of hydrophobic recovery was studied for cold air plasma treated polyethylene films. Plasma-treated polymer films were immersed into liquids with very different polarities such as ethanol, acetone, carbon tetrachloride, benzene and carbon disulphide. Hydrophobic recovery was studied by measurement of contact angles. Immersion into high polarity liquids slows markedly the hydrophobic recovery. We relate this slowing to dipole-dipole interaction of polar groups of the polymer with those of the liquids. This kind of interaction becomes decisive when polar groups of polymer chains are at least partially spatially fixed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)549-553
Number of pages5
JournalApplied Surface Science
Volume273
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 May 2013

Keywords

  • Cold plasma
  • Dipole-dipole interaction
  • Hydrophobic recovery
  • Polar liquids
  • Polyethylene
  • Wetting

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