Chemical force microscopy study of adhesive properties of polypropylene films: influence of surface polarity and medium

The adhesive properties of untreated and corona treated polypropylene (PP) films were studied in polar (water) and nonpolar (hexadecane) liquid medium by using chemical force microscopy. A gold-coated colloidal probe was sequentially modified with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of omega-functionalized alkanethiols. The same colloidal probe was used for the force measurements, to avoid influence of determination accuracy of the spring constant and sphere radius on the obtained results. The thermodynamic work of adhesion was determined from the measured pull-off force using the Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) adhesion theory. Rabinovich's model was applied for the consideration of an effect of roughness when calculating the work of adhesion. It was found that the work of adhesion correlates with the hydrophilic properties of the PP surface and SAMs as well as with the polarity of the liquid medium. The observed correlations agree well with those found for the work of adhesion calculated from contact angle measurement.