Thin wetting films from aqueous solutions of a polyoxyethylene–polyoxypropylene block copolymer on silicon carbide surface

Abstract

Thin wetting films from aqueous solutions of polyoxyethylene–polyoxypropylene ABA-block copolymer+NaCl in different concentrations on silicon carbide substrate have been studied. The polymer adsorption at the silicon carbide/aqueous solution interface has been studied using the spectrophotometric method, based on the colored polymer–iodine complex. The area per molecule, the conformation of the adsorbed molecules and the thickness of the adsorption layer at the solid/liquid interface were determined. The three-layer model of the structure of thin liquid films on the flat SiC surface has been used for calculation of the film thickness from the data obtained by the microinterferometric method. The dependence of the film thickness on time has been determined. The influence of the electrolyte concentration on the equilibrium film thickness has been studied. It was found that for NaCl concentrations higher than 3×10 −2 M the film thickness remained constant, i.e. the electrostatic disjoining pressure was fully suppressed. The disjoining pressure/thickness-isotherm has been obtained experimentally using the dynamic method. It has been interpreted by the superposition of a negative van der Waals component and a positive steric component of the disjoining pressure.