Correlation between adhesion of aqueous solutions of nonionic and anionic surfactant mixture with short-chain alcohols to polymer surface and their adsorption at interfaces. II. Critical surface tension of polymer wetting and work of adhesion

On the basis of contact angle measurements of aqueous solutions of TX-100 and SDDS mixtures with methanol, ethanol or propanol on PTFE and nylon-6 surfaces presented in the first part of our paper and the literature data concerning the surface tension of the studied solutions, the critical surface tension of polymer wetting was calculated and compared with its surface tension. Moreover, the work of adhesion of the solution to the PTFE surface was determined directly from the Young-Dupre equation, together with the dependence between the adhesion tension and the surface tension of the solution as well as between the cosine of the contact angle and the reciprocal of the surface tension of the solution. In the case of nylon-6, the work of adhesion was established on the basis of Neumann et al. and van Oss et al. approaches as well as the Young-Dupre equation. For both polymers work of adhesion was compared with the work of adhesion of particular components of the studied solutions to their surfaces.