| Abstract
| - The effect of surfactants on wetting behavior of super-hydrophobic surfaces was investigated. Super-hydrophobic surfaces were prepared of alkylketene dimer (AKD) by casting the AKD melt in a speciallydesigned mold. Time-dependent studies were carried out, using the axisymmetric drop shape analysismethod for contact angle measurement of pure water on AKD surfaces. The results show that both advancingand receding contact angles of water on the AKD surfaces increase over time (∼3 days) and reach the valuesof about 164 and 147°, respectively. The increase of contact angles is due to the development of a pricklystructure on the surface (verified by scanning electron microscopy), which is responsible for its super-hydrophobicity. Aqueous solutions of sodium acetate, sodium dodecyl sulfate, hexadecyltrimethylammoniumbromide, and n-decanoyl-n-methylglucamine were used to investigate the wetting of AKD surfaces.Advancing and receding contact angles for various concentrations of different surfactant solutions weremeasured. The contact angle results were compared to those of a number of pure liquids with surfacetensions similar to those of surfactant solutions. It was found that although the surface tensions of pureliquids and surfactant solutions at high concentrations are similar, the contact angles are very different.Furthermore, the usual behavior of super-hydrophobic surfaces that turn super-hydrophilic when theintrinsic contact angle of liquid on a smooth surface (of identical material) is below 90° was not observedin the presence of surfactants. The difference in the results for pure liquids and surfactant solutions isexplained using an adsorption hypothesis.
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