Wetting properties of homopolymers and copolymers of pentafluorostyrene and methylacrylate and homopolymer blends

✍ Scribed by John W-P. Lin; Les P. Dudek; Debesh Majumdar

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 585 KB
• Volume: 33
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/app.1987.070330227

✦ Synopsis

Polypentafluorostyrene (PPFS), polymethylacrylate (PMA), and poly(pentduorostyreneco-methylacrylate), poly(PFS-co-MA) were prepared and the wetting characteristics of polymer blends of PPFS and PMA were compared with that of poly(PFS-co-MA) via contact angle measurements. The critical surface tension of polypentafiuorostyrene was found to be 22.6 dyne/cm, which is comparable to the.value reported for polytrifluoroethylene (22 dyne/cm). The critical surface tension of poly(PFS-co-MA) is not linearly related to its composition. The polymer blends of PPFS and PMA exhibit significant surface enrichment of the fluoropolymer. The harmonic-mean method' was employed to determine surface tensions of these polymers and many known polymers. It is found that the method produces useful surface tension data provided the contact angle values are derived from testing liquids of dissimilar polarity.

EXPERIMENTAL

Homopolymers and copolymers of 2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorostyrene and methyl acrylate were synthesized by solution polymerization with a free radical