Preparation and hydrophobicity improvement of fluorinated poly (styrene-acrylate) / ferrocene composites

For the study fluorine containing poly (styrene-acrylate) / ferrocene (FPSA / Fc) composites were prepared by directly mixing FPSA latexes with ferrocene and ethanol co-solvent. Vesicles were obtained while occurring oxidation of composite films, and ruptured to form micropores when carrying out heated process of oxidised films, resulting in increasing roughness and hydrophobicity of composite films.

TEM images confirmed that two kinds of structures including ferrocene aggregates and adsorbate latexes existed in composite latexes. The average particle size was decreased after addition of ferrocene. SEM and AFM photos indicated that vesicles and micropores were observed on the oxidised and heated composite films, respectively, and the improvement of surface roughness was subsequently occurred.

Oxidation increased the hydrophilicity of composite films

Water contact angle (WCA) results described that the oxidation had increased the hydrophilicity of composite films, in contrast, the rupture of vesicles had increased the hydrophobicity. The maximum WCA of composite film is up to 121° when the dosage of dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate (DFMA) and ferrocene were 10.0 and 0.5 wt%, respectively. TGA curves demonstrated that the thermal stability was improved because of the addition of ferrocene and oxidation.

The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 128.