January 7, 2022
In partnership with DataPhysics Instruments. DataPhysics Instruments was founded in 1997 and has now added tensiometry, spinning drop tensiometry and dispersion stability analysis to their available techniques establishing them a worldwide reputation in surface and interface science.
Welcome to the first edition of Modern Surface for 2022. I hope you all had a restful Christmas and New year and that you’re all staying well. I’m not someone who makes grand resolutions for the new year but I do think it’s is a good time to reflect. Finally getting my PhD, moving to a new city, starting a new job and increasing my duties at Surface Ventures made 2021 a very busy year! Despite the greater issues in the world, I look favourably on last year but it was a difficult year for many. Here’s hoping that 2022 is better. From all of us here at Surface Ventures, we hope you have a great New Year!
Modifying surface chemistry to change wettability has applications across a number of fields. In “Enhancing the performance of PVDF membranes by hydrophilic surface modification via amine treatment”, Sun and Feng created hydrophilic filtration membranes to increase anti-fouling resistance.
Abstract:
Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) is widely used to fabricate filtration membranes in the form of hollow fibers and flat sheets. However, the potential problems associated with its hydrophobicity (e.g., tube-sheet leak-through and surface fouling) have compromised the performance of PVDF membranes. In this study, we proposed a method for surface hydrophilization of PVDF membranes via amine treatment. The effects of the concentration of the amine solution, treatment temperature and treatment time on the surface hydrophilicity, antifouling performance and permeation properties of the modified membranes were investigated. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were used to analyze the elements of the membrane surfaces. It was shown that up to 57% of the fluorine on the membrane surface could be eliminated by the amine treatment. As a result, the hydrophilicity and antifouling performance of PVDF membranes could be significantly enhanced.
It’s common knowledge that greenhouse gas emissions are causing climate change. This increase in the average temperature deviation across the Earth’s surface is caused by a huge increase in global resource consumption. Many different sectors are responsible for this growth as shown in the infographic below. You can explore this further on the Visual Capatalist and in greater detail from Our World in Data.
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Alexander Leitner questions what it means when we say we’re wasting our time. According to the stop-motion animator, “productivity” is relative and the many seemingly unproductive things we do during the day can be as crucial to our wellbeing as the “important” stuff.
Date: Thursday, January 13th at 1pm GMT.
The wettability of a surface is defined by the interfacial chemical properties of both the liquid and solid phase. Measuring the contact angle with water is an important method to characterise how hydrophobic or hydrophilic a surface is i.e., how it interacts with water and water-like liquids. However, very hydrophilic surfaces will display a contact angle of 0° against water.
With traditional methods, it is difficult to quantify the effect of surface modifications when the contact angle becomes too low. For those materials, the concept of “imaginary contact angles” can be used to properly quantify highly hydrophilic materials. After Dr McMaster's presentation, Sebastian Schaubach will present a demo of the DCAT tensiometer from DataPhysics Instruments.
