Wettability of polytetrafluoroethylene by aqueous solutions of two anionic surfactant mixtures

Advancing contact angle (theta) measurements were carried out on mixtures of aqueous solutions of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDDS) and sodium hexadecyl sulfonate (SHDSs) on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). The obtained results indicate that there were only small contact angle changes over the range of surfactant concentrations in the solution, corresponding to the unsaturated surfactant layer at the aqueous solution-air interface. However, when saturation of the surfactant layer was achieved a considerable decrease in the contact angle (increase in costheta) as a function of concentration was observed. The dependence of costheta on the monomer mole fraction of SHDSs in the mixture of the surfactants (alpha) for aqueous solutions of mixtures at concentrations corresponding to the critical micelle concentration (CMC) had a maximum at alpha=0.2. From the results of these measurements and application of the Gibbs and Young equations the ratio of the excess concentration of surfactants at the solid-aqueous solution interface to the excess of their concentration at the aqueous solution-air interface was calculated. On the basis of the measurements and calculations it was found that there was a straight linear relationship between the adhesion tension and surface tension of aqueous solutions of surfactant mixtures at a given alpha, and that the slope of the obtained straight lines was equal to -1, which suggests that the surface excess of the surfactant concentrations at the PTFE-solution interface is the same as that at the solution-air interface for a given bulk concentration of the surfactant mixtures. The dependence of the surface concentration excess at the PTFE-solution interface on the monomer mole fraction of SHDSs in the mixture of the surfactants for the concentration region of the mixture of aqueous solutions, corresponding to a saturated monolayer, had a maximum at alpha=0.4, probably resulting from increased degree of binding between adsorbed surface-active ions and counterions. It was also found that the critical surface tension of PTFE wetting by aqueous solutions of two anionic surfactant mixtures was equal to 23.35 mN/m, which was higher than the critical surface tension of wetting determined from straight linear dependence between costheta and surface tension of alkanes (19.94 mN/m). This suggests that polar interaction at PTFE-aqueous solutions of surfactant mixtures can probably take place.