PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SUPERHYDROPHOBIC FEP-TEFLON SURFACES

Superhydrophobic FEP-Teflon was prepared by argon ion etching followed by oxygen glow discharge treatment of commercially available FEP-Teflon sheet material. This combined treatment yielded an increase in water contact angle from 109-degrees to > 140-degrees. Ion etching alone caused a small increase in surface roughness and a loss of fluorine from the surface, but the water contact angles increased only to 120-degrees. Scanning electron micrographs of ion-etched surfaces showed stalky protrusions with a diameter of approximately 40 nm. Glow discharge treatment of ion-etched surfaces reduced the length of these protrusions and therewith the microscopic surface roughness. However, in all cases the macroscopic surface roughness was less than 1-mu-m (R(A) value). X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicated major changes in elemental surface composition as a result of the treatments. These modifications did not influence the infrared absorption spectra (attenuated total reflection) of the modified surfaces, indicating that the chemical changes brought about are really superficial. It is concluded that the superhydrophobicity created is mainly due to changes in the specific, microscopic surface topography resulting from ion etching, but also partly due to the role of the glow discharge treatment, restoring a high surface concentration of fluorine after ion etching.