Surface modification solution-blending system

Effects of Surface Modification on Solution-Blending System... 

Surface modification by surface modifying macromolecules (SMMs) In a polymer blend, thermodynamic incompatibility between polymers usually causes demixing of polymers. If the polymer is equilibrated in air, the polymer with the lowest surface energy (the hydrophobic polymer) will concentrate at the air interface and reduce the system s interfacial tension as a consequence. The preferential adsorption of a polymer of lower surface tension at the surface was confirmed by a number of researchers for the miscible blend of two different polymers. Based on this concept, surface modifying macromolecules as surface-active additives were synthesized and blended into polymer solutions of poly(ether sulfone) (PES). Depending on the hydrophobic [10,11] or hydrophilic [12] nature of the SMMs, the membrane surface becomes either more hydrophobic or more hydrophilic than the base polymeric material. 

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