Combined XPS and contact angle studies of ethylene vinyl acetate and polyvinyl acetate blends

In this study, we prepared thin films by blending ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers (EVA) containing 12-33 (wt.%) vinyl acetate (VA) with polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) and high density polyethylene homopolymers. Large area micropatterns having controlled protrusion sizes were obtained by phase-separation especially for the PVAc/EVA-33 blends using dip coating. These surfaces were characterized by XPS and contact angle measurements. A reasonably linear relation was found between the VA content on the surface (wt.%) obtained from XPS analysis and the VA content in bulk especially for PVAc/EVA-33 blend surfaces. PE segments were more enriched on the surface than that of the bulk for pure EVA copolymer surfaces similar to previous reports and VA enrichment was found on the EVA/HDPE blend surfaces due to high molecular weight of HDPE. Water theta(e) decreased with the increase in the VA content on the blend surface due to the polarity of VA. A good agreement was obtained between gamma(-)(s) and atomic oxygen surface concentration with the increase of VA content. The applicability of Cassie-Baxter equation was tested and found that it gave consistent results with the experimental water contact angles for the case where VA content was lower than 55 wt.% in the bulk composition. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.