ARS | Publication request: EVALUATION OF PS AND PMMA PROBES FOR THE ESTIMATION OF POLAR AND DISPERSIVESURFACE ENERGY PARAMETERS OF POLYMERS USING THE IMBEDDED FIBER RETRACTION METHOD

Submitted to: Annual Colloid and Surface Science Symposium
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: June 13, 2001
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Polymers whose dispersive (gamma**D) and polar (gamma**P) surface energy parameters are known can be used as probes to estimate the surface energy parameters of other polymers from the interfacial tensions of the probes with the polymer. Such method of estimating surface energy parameters has been used rarely in the past mainly due to difficulties with direct measurement of the interfacial tension of high molecular weight and high viscosity polymer blends using current equilibrium methods such as sessile or pendant drop. This problem can be overcome by using the imbedded-fiber retraction (IFR) method, which is a dynamic method particularly suitable for direct measurement of the interfacial tensions of high viscosity polymer blends in a relatively short period of time. In this work, PS and PMMA were used as probes to estimate the surface energy parameters of several polar and non-polar polymers. The IFR method was used to directly measure the interfacial tensions of the polymers with PS and PMMA. The surface energy parameters of the polymers were then estimated from the reported gamma**D, gamma**P values of PS and PMMA as well as the IFR measured interfacial tensions. Correlations were observed between the gamma**P of the probe polymers and the IFR measured interfacial tensions. The implications of these correlations will be discussed.