Surface and wetting characteristics of textured bisphenol‐A based polycarbonate surfaces: Acetone‐induced crystallization texturing methods

Abstract

Polycarbonate (PC) sheet is a promising material for facile patterning to induce hydrophobic self-cleaning and dust repelling properties for photovoltaic panels' protection. An investigation to texture PC sheet surfaces to develop a self-cleaning structure using solvent induced-crystallization is carried out using acetone. Acetone is applied in both liquid and vapor states to generate a hierarchically structured surface that would improve its contacts angle and therefore improve hydrophobicity. The surface texture is investigated and characterized using atomic force microscopy, contact angle technique (Goniometer), optical microscopy, ultravioletvisible spectroscopy (UV-vis) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The findings revealed that the liquid acetone-induced crystallization of PC surface leads to a hierarchal and hydrophobic surface with an average contact angle of 1358 and average transmittance <2%. However, the acetone vapor induced-crystallization results in a slightly hydrophilic hierarchal textured surface with high transmittance; in which case, average contact angle of 898 and average transmittance of 69% are achieved. V C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43074.

Characterization of petroleum-based plastics and their absorbed trace metals from the sediments of the Marina Beach in Chennai, India

“…We hypothesized that the specific endothermic polymer peaks could be used to describe the petroleum-based plastic debris. The petroleum-based plastic debris (LDPE, PET, PA, and PC) showed the characteristic endothermic peaks [66,[68][69][70]. The results of ATR-FTIR and TGA-DSC confirmed a 100% rate of petroleum-based plastic debris.…”

“…These peaks have been reported as the PA native bonds [65]. A strong intensity of carbonyl bonds C=O and an aromatic (C-H) at 2920 cm −1 and 1768.4 cm −1 , indicating the PC native bonds [66].…”

Texture Analysis of Hydrophobic Polycarbonate and Polydimethylsiloxane Surfaces via Persistent Homology

“…The selection of the immersion durations was based on the texture height and texture spacing, which were composed of micro/nano size fibrils and spherulites, while resulting in hierarchical texture patterns at the crystallized surface. Since the crystallized PC surface had low optical transmittance [2,5], the surface texture of the crystallized PC was replicated by using liquid polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which belongs to a group of polymeric organosilicon compounds. PDMS has high optical transmittance and optical dispersion of the textured surface had no significant effect on the transmittance of replicated PDMS [2].…”

“…Solvent induced crystallization of polycarbonate surfaces is one of the promising techniques to generate surface texture comprising of micro/nano pillars [4]. Depending on the solvent concentration, process temperature, and crystallization duration, surface textures of different hierarchical structures can be formed [5]. In some circumstances, optical transmittance of the crystallized polycarbonate wafer is lowered because of scattering and the diffusive reflection of the textured surface [2].…”

“…Although hydrophobicity of the crystallized polycarbonate surfaces was examined previously [2,5], the study was limited to texture characteristics and optical transmittance of the resulting surface. The correlation between the surface topology and the water droplet contact angle was left for a future study.…”