Self‐emulsification and surface modification effect of fluorinated amphiphilic acrylate graft copolymers

We report on self‐emulsification and surface modification effect of novel fluorinated amphiphilic graft copolymers prepared with perfluoroalkyl acrylate and 2‐dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate using simple macromonomer technique and radical copolymerization. The interfacial properties of amphiphilic graft copolymers were characterized with light scattering, contact angle measurement, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The preparation of fluorinated amphiphilic graft copolymer was verified using nuclear magnetic resonance and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. It was observed that the fluorinated amphiphilic graft copolymer has both strong hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties and shows self‐emulsification ability without addition of external surfactants. The graft copolymer shows very low surface energy even though the copolymer has low content of hydrophobic segment and better performance than random copolymer for low‐energy surface modification. The addition of small amount of the graft copolymer (0.1 wt %) into the base poly(methyl methacrylate) was sufficient to lower the surface energy less than that of poly(tetrafluoroethylene). © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2010