Fluorination of epoxy surfaces by a physical method

To enhance the surface hydrophobicity of epoxy polymers, a simple physical method for the simultaneous surface fluorination during curing of epoxy res ins was proposed and evaluated. Curing of ep oxy resins against a polytetra fluoroethylene (PTFE) mold gave rise to fluorinated epoxy polymer surfaces due to the anchorage of PTFE molecules on the epoxy polymer surface. The mo dified epoxy surfaces were characterized using contact-angle measurements a nd X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The fluorinated epoxy resin surf aces are highly hydrophobic, exhibiting contact angles of similar magnitude to that of the pristine PTFE film surface. The PTFE mold can be used repea tedly to give fluorinated epoxy surfaces with large contact angles. Aging a nd solvent extraction tests indicated that the fluorinated epoxy surfaces w ere very stable. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.