Interaction of surfactant with antistatic polymer thin layers

Thin layers made from three kinds of hydrophilic polymer were coated onto poly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET) fibers to study the interaction of an anionic surfactant, sodiumn-dodecyl benzenesulfonate, with the polymer layers. The coated layers include a) poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) crosslinked with glutaraldehyde [nonionic], b) crosslinked, sulfated PVA [anionic], and c) polyethyleneimine crosslinked with poly(ethyleneglycol diglycidylether) [cationic]. All of these coatings were found to reduce the electrostatic charging of the PET cloths, indicating that they were effectively coated with the hydrophilic polymers. The PET cloth coated with the thin layers was immersed in the aqueous solution of surfactant at 40°C for different durations and the electrostatic voltage as well as the weight change were determined after drying. When the cloth coated with the nonionic or the anionic layer was brought into contact with the surfactant, neither the electrostatic voltage nor the weight of PET changed. On the contrary, immersion in the surfactant solution brought about an increase in both the electrostatic voltage and the weight for the PET coated with the cationic layer. This suggested that the surfactant molecules were bound to the cationic layer, in contrast to the nonionic and the anionic layer. It was concluded that the binding was due to ion complexing between the cationic groups in the polymeric layer and the sulfate groups in the surfactant molecules.