Modification of surface properties of polyethylene by perfluoropolyether blending

Abstract

The preparation of a stabile blend from thermoplastic polymer and lubricating additive was studied with high density polyethylene (HDPE) and perfluoropolyether (PFPE). PFPE was melt blended within HDPE by injection molding. The chemical composition of the mixtures, the relative amount of PFPE on the surface, and the nature of the surface were studied by three surface sensitive methods: attenuated total reflectance infrared (ATR‐IR) spectroscopy, secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), and contact angle (CA) measurement. All the blends exhibited improved hydrophobicity. CA and SIMS gave a maximum response when about 2.0 wt % PFPE was added, whereas ATR‐IR spectroscopy gave maximum response for an addition of about 3.0 wt %. No changes in surface properties were observed when samples were reanalyzed about 1–4 months after preparation. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 43: 2252–2258, 2005

Wettability of the morphologically and compositionally varied surfaces prepared from blends of well ordered comb-like polymer and polystyrene

“…Among the many methods for modifying the surface properties, polymer blending is considered one of the simplest methods for obtaining the desirable surface characteristics by controlling the surface morphology and wettability [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] and commercially available polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) have been studied extensively as blending components [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Polymer surfaces with extremely low surface energies are used widely in electric and biomedical applications [24][25][26].…”

Compression‐molded, lubricant‐treated UHMWPE composites

“…[Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com.] from PFPE was integrated between 1285 and 1215 cm À1 and the peak area was plotted together with the results for HDPE obtained in previous work, 20 as shown in Figure 2(B).…”

“…We recently demonstrated that the hydrophobicity of polyolefins can be permanently improved by melt blending with perfluoropolyethers (PFPE) and by surface structuring. 20,21 The aims of the present work were to explore the possibility of preparing lubricant treated UHMWPE composites, to study the distribution of lubricants in UHMWPE, and to compare the effects of different lubricants. The modifications were designed to produce a material with permanently improved tribological and hydrophobicity properties, which would allow a broader use of UHMWPE.…”

Superhydrophobic Polyethylene Films by Catalytic Ethylene Polymerization

“…Superhydrophobic surfaces have been prepared from polyethylene and polypropylene from polymer solutions, by blending with perfluorinated compounds, by injection molding into micro-and nanostructured molds, or by surface treatment with CF 4 plasma [5,[21][22][23][24][25][26]. Recently we have described a simple one-step method for creating superhydrophobic PE films on flat (oxide) supports by catalytic ethylene polymerization in a solvent using a catalyst that is tethered to the oxide surface [27].…”