engleski

Influence of surface morphology and plasma treatment on hydrophobicity of polymer blend surfaces

The idea of superhydrophobic or ultrahydrophobic surfaces inspired by the lotus leaf (Nelumbo) surface, gained a lot of significance in the past [1]. The specific roughness of the surface is crucial for the superhydrophobicity and lotus effect. Surface properties have great impact on type of fluid flow inside microchannels of chemical reactors and liquid/liquid separators. In this work a technique for changing hydrophobicity of polymer blends by forming specific surface topography is described. Polymers used for polymer blend preparation are polylactide (PLA) and acrylonitrile/butadiene/styrene (ABS), two polymers which are most often used in fused deposition modelling - an additive manufacturing (3D printing) technology. Also, low-density polyethylene (PE-LD), and high-density polyethylene (PE-HD) were used. In order to increase hydrophobicity by changing the topography of two-phase polymer blend surface, blends are etched by using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) before the fluorocarbon-based coating treatment done in the second step [2]. In the course of the PLA/PE polymer blends surface treatment process, polylactide is etched considerably more than polyethylene and specific "island-like" surface morphology is created. This morphology, after the Teflon treatment, provides 10° to 20° higher water contact angle. ABS based polymer blends did not show this property. This work has been supported by Croatian Science Foundation under the project entitled “Development of materials for 3D printing of microreactors” (UIP- 2014-09-3154).

surface morphology ; plasma treatment ; hydrophobicity ; polymer blend

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