A study of the surface analysis of some water-soluble polymers by inverse gas chromatography

The surface characterization of 2-(dimethylamino)ethylmethacrylate (DMA) and 2-(N-morpholino)ethylmethacrylate (MEMA) homopolymers and DMA-MEMA diblock copolymer was studied using inverse-gas chromatography (IGC). The analyzed surface properties of (co)polymers were the dispersive component of the surface energy (gamma(d)(s)) and the acid-base characters of (co)polymer surfaces. The specific free energy (Delta G(sp)), enthalpy (Delta H-sp), and entropy (Delta S-sp) of adsorption of polar probes on (co)polymers were calculated. The values of Delta H-sp were correlated with both the donor and the modified acceptor numbers (AN) of the probes to quantify the acidic K-A and the basic K-D parameters of (co)polymer surfaces. The values obtained for the K-A and K-D parameters indicated basic characters for the surface of (co)polymers. The dispersive component values of the surface energy and the acid-base surface parameters of the DMA-MEMA diblock copolymer surface were found to be between those homopolymers as expected. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.