Aranas, Erica Trisha T.

MSE21L- E01
Exercise: Contact Angle Measurement
Directions: Please answer guide questions for your report on contact angle
experiment. Once you determined the surface energy of the polymers determine:

a) Is the polymer hydrophobic,hydrophilic or semihydrophilic (contact

angle between 60 and 90 deg)?
First, we will determine what is a Contact Angle. Contact Angle has been an
important parameter to determine the wetting ability of the polymer
membrane surface. Contact angle has gained interest in surface science
regarding its fundamental aspects and application point of view. (2017, R.S.
Hebbar). In the previous experiment we are given polymers. For
polyethylene, the use of Formamide and Diiodomethane in it has a contact
angle that is more than 90° but with the water that has a contact angle of
93° it is considered as a Semi-hydrophilic polymer. And on the other hand, for
Polyamide, the use of Formamide, Diiodomethane and water on the surface
of it has a contact angle that is less than 90 degrees which makes it
Hydrophilic.

b) From the FTIR graph, which polar or nonpolar groups do you think
contributes to the hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of the polymer surface?

If you look at FTIR graph you will see that bonds N-H, C=O, C=C, N-O and C-O
are polar groups that results the polymer to be Hydrophilic and for the O-H,
C-H non polar bonds are said to be the polymer as Hydrophobic.

c) Looking at the contact angles between diidomethane, formamide and

water, what can you generalized is the relationship of 2 hydrophobic
surfaces in contact with each other (will they have strong attraction or
weak attraction to each other)? You can also explain this from the
equations I gave you from the ppsx. From your generalization, what can
you say about the relationship between 2 hydrophilic surfaces?

In relation between Contact angle and Surface Tension, a high wetting

surface has a surface energy that makes strong attractive to pull the fluid
droplets down, making it to spread out that results to be Low contact angle
= high surface energy and high interfacial tension. While a low wetting
surface, the surface vitality is more vulnerable than the surface tension of the
fluid, implying that the fluid can more likely keep its droplet shape results to
be High contact angle = low surface energy and low interfacial tension. 
As you can see only Water in terms of Polymer Polyethylene have a higher
contact angle of 93° which we can conclude to be low in wettability while the
others having a low contact angle are said to be more attractive and have a
high wettability.