I am trying to understand how to make a polymer surface hydrophilic and oleopohobic. I will choose a polymer that has polar functional groups so it will be hydrophilic but i will need to make it oleophobic as well. From the literature I've gathered that:
1) Hydrophilicity can be increased by adding polar functional groups like OH and COOH
2) A smooth surface with low surface roughness can increase hydrophilicity
3) I am quite confused about the effect of surface energy on hydrophilicity and oleophobicity? An article I read mentioned "To be hydrophobic a solid must have a lower Surface Energy than water, and to be oleophobic a solid must have a lower Surface Energy than oil" What I understand from this is to increase oleophobicity the surface should have low surface energy but it seems that doing that will also make the material hydrophobic? or am I understanding it incorrectly? If someone could explain how surface energy can be altered to make a surface hydrophilic and oleophobic?
4) What other techniques can be used to increase the hydrophilicity of a material while simultaneously increasing the oleophobicity as well?
Thank you
Could you please specify the "type of material(s)" you mention about its surface, a solid inorganic, carbon, glass, polymer, natural, biologic....? The technical term you need to search about is "surface activation". Depending on the material type, surface activation (or functionalization) process might be chemical (by acid treatment) or physical or sometimes both to increase the hydrophilicity.
Good luck.
It is a very useful explanation; your material is a "polymer". There are thousands of polymers and might be hundreds of commercial types, too many structural and physical variations.
I cannot help you properly because your polymer is probably a highly confidential and secret one...
good luck
4) About other techniques:
We used micro-blasting with aluminum oxide particles or glass beads particles to improve the hidrophilicity of Titanium. After blasting, there were residual Al and O or Si and O, respectively, on the blasted titanium surface. This residuals cannot be removed by ultrasonic cleaning and significantly affected to wettability of metals. However, we never tried it with polymers.
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