Designing fluorinated emulsions with low surface energy
Novel fluorinated emulsions with sulfonyl macro emulsifiers exhibit extreme low surface energy and outstanding hydrophobicity. They show great potential in water repellent modification applications.
Fluorinated acrylate emulsions have been extensively applied for hydrophobic surface coatings.
Superior emulsification properties
To obtain fluorinated emulsions of low surface energy, amphiphilic sulfonyl macro emulsifiers consisting of 2-(perfluorohexyl) ethyl acrylate (PFHEA) and 2-acrylanmido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS) were designed via radical polymerisation and subsequently used for emulsion copolymerisation of PFHEA, methyl methacrylate (MMA), and methyl butyl acrylate (MBA). Under optimum synthesis conditions, the emulsifier displayed superior emulsification properties such as high monomer conversion, small particle size, and excellent stability compared with conventional emulsifiers.
High contents of fluorinated chains
The corresponding emulsions with sulfonyl macro emulsifiers exhibited extreme low surface energy (9.8 mN/m) and outstanding hydrophobicity due to high contents of fluorinated chains, as well as thimbleful hydrophilic sulfonyl groups, which show the great potential in water repellent modification application.
The study is published in: Applied Polymer Science, Volume 134, Issue 23, 15 June 2017
