• Clean Technology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.170-176
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• 2012

A series of acrylic copolymers containing perfluoroalkyl acrylate were synthesized by 2-step emulsion polymerization of variety of acrylate monomers (ethyl acrylate, butyl acrylate or methyl methacrylate) with perfluoroalkyl ethyl acrylate (PFA) and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) monomers. This study focused on effects of monomer compositions (the kind of acrylate monomer, contents of PFA and GMA) and composition of surfactants [(sodium dodecyl sulphate/nonylphenol 10mole ethoxylate (NP-10)] and initiator content on the contact angles and surface free energy. It was found that the copolymer having an optimum composition (BA : 87 wt%, GMA : 8.7 wt% and PFA : 4.3 wt%) was shown to be quite surface active [surface free energy : 19.89 mN/m and contact angles : $103.5^{\circ}$ (water) and $78.7^{\circ}$ (methylene iodide)] in the solid state. This result suggests that the optimal copolymer containing fluorinated monomer synthesized in this study have high potential as a low surface energy material, which may have high oil- and water-repellent surface and have been proposed as acrylic syntan for leather and also as soil-resistant/oil and water repellent coating for textiles and wood etc.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 2013

Superhydrophobic $SiO_2$ layers with a micro-nano hierarchical surface structure were prepared. $SiO_2$ layers deposited via an electrospray method combined with a sol-gel chemical route were rough on the microscale. Au particles were decorated on the surface of the microscale-rough $SiO_2$ layers by use of the photo-reduction process with different intensities ($0.11-1.9mW/cm^2$) and illumination times (60-240 sec) of ultraviolet light. With the aid of nanoscale Au nanoparticles, this consequently resulted in a micro-nano hierarchical surface structure. Subsequent fluorination treatment with a solution containing trichloro(1H,2H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyl)silane fluorinated the hierarchical $SiO_2$ layers. The change in surface roughness factor was in good agreement with that observed for the water contact angle, where the surface roughness factor developed as a measure needed to evaluate the degree of surface roughness. The resulting $SiO_2$ layers revealed excellent repellency toward various liquid droplets with different surface tensions ranging from 46 to 72.3 mN/m. Especially, the micro-nano hierarchical surface created at an illumination intensity of $0.11mW/cm^2$ and illumination time of 60 sec showed the largest water contact angle of $170^{\circ}$. Based on the Cassie-Baxter and Young-Dupre equations, the surface fraction and work of adhesion for the micronano hierarchical $SiO_2$ layers were evaluated. The work of adhesion was estimated to be less than $3{\times}10^{-3}N/m$ for all the liquid droplets. This exceptionally small work of adhesion is likely to be responsible for the strong repellency of the liquids to the micro-nano hierarchical $SiO_2$ layers.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.653-658
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• 2021

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is a promising coating material because of its outstanding processability. The PVDF coating, however, has limitations in anti-corrosion application due to its weak hydrophobicity compared to that of other fluoropolymers. In this study, plasma fluorination was performed using carbon tetrafluoride (CF₄) gas to improve anti-corrosion properties of PVDF. The fluorine content and hydrophobicity of PVDF were investigated in different CF₄ flow rates, followed by the determination of anti-corrosion properties. The fluorine content on the surface of the PVDF film increased by up to 46.70%, but the surface free energy was independent of CF₄ flow rate. Meanwhile, the surface roughness of the PDVF film tended to increase by up to 150% and then decrease with increasing CF₄ flow rate. It is considered that the plasma fluorination affects the surface free energy due to the introduction of fluorine functional groups and surface etching. In addition, the degree of corrosion of the PVDF-coated Fe plate was significantly reduced from 49.2% to 19.0% compared to that of the uncoated Fe plate. In particular, the degree of corrosion of the fluorinated PVDF-coated Fe plate was 13.6%, which was 28.4% lower than that of the PVDF-coated Fe plate, showing improved anti-corrosion protection.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.413-419
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• 2019

In the recent, as a world demand of energy resources has been transformed from fossil fuels to hydrogen-based clean energy resources, a huge attention has been attracted to increase the performance and decrease a production cost of core materials in fuel cell technology. The utilization of reinforced composite membranes as electrolytes in the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells can reduce the use of high cost perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA), mitigate the cell impedance, and improve the dimensional stability as well as the interfacial stability, giving rise to achieve both an improved performance and a reduction of production costs of the fuel cell devices. In this study, we investigate the effects of physical characteristics and cell performances according to the various ionomer solvents in the solution based manufacturing process of reinforced composite electrolyte membrane.