Perfluorinated polymer surfaces comprising SF5-terminated long-chain perfluoroacrylate

A new perfluorinated acrylate monomer containing the SF5(CF2)(6)-perfluorinated side chain was synthesized and polymerized into films. Bulk monomer characterization is consistent with the molecular structure based on FTIR, mass spectrometry and NMR analyses, The surface properties of polymer coatings were studied with aqueous wetting (contact angle) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) methods. The surface composition is shown to be highly enriched in the terminal side chain SF5-chemistry and exhibits properties consistent with a highly apolar, non-wetting perfluorinated polymer surface. Depth-dependent XPS studies using angular-re solved methods (ADXPS) confirmed a non-stoichiometric enrichment of sulfur and fluorine at the film ambient interface, consistent with a surface presence of the terminal SF5-group and possibly film structural anisotropy in the surface zone. Time-of-flight (TOF) secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) analysis supplements the XPS data by showing the presence of all expected SF5-acrylate chemistry components in the outer 15 A of the film surface. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.