For decades, water and oil repellency of fiber forming thermoplastics has been achieved with introduction of long-chain perfluoroalkyl substances and moieties (PFASs, C<sub>n</sub>F<sub>2n+1</sub>, n ≥ 7). However, they have been phased out of industrial production and textile applications due to their bioaccumulative and toxicological impact. To this end, we synthesized novel perfluoropolyerther (PFPE)-based methacrylate monomer (FM) by reacting PFPE-based alcohol with methacryloyl chloride. The resulting monomer was polymerized radically to obtain PFPE-based fluorinated polymer (PFM). The polymer does not possess long-chain perfluoroalkyl segments and has structure of molecular bottlebrush where relatively long side chains are anchored to the linear backbone at high grafting densities. In our study, the polymer was used as a low-surface energy additive for modification of industrial fiber forming thermoplastics. Specifically, the surface properties such as wettability and morphology of PFM/thermoplastic polymer films were studied using contact angle measurements and atomic force microscopy. It was found that PFM, when added to nylon 6, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) films, readily migrates to the film surface and brings significant water and oil repellency to the thermoplastic boundary. The addition of this PFM polymer to thermoplastics, even at quite low concentration, allows the polymer films reaching a level of oil wettability and surface energy lower than that of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE/Teflon). We associate this efficiency of the polymer in achieving high water and oil repellency with its ability to form molecular bottlebrush nanoscale layer on polymer film surfaces. Therefore, the polymer can be considered as safer replacement for additives containing long-chain perfluoroalkyl substances.

Perfluoropolyether-based molecular bottlebrush as water/oil repellent additive for fiber forming thermoplastics

2019 Spring National Meeting

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