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Surface modification of and adhesion to polystyrene

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thesis
posted on 2018-08-02, 08:54 authored by Ting-Ting Ng
Polystyrene (PS) is a non-polar polymer that has limited surface properties since it lacks polar functional groups. In this project, different polar functional groups were incorporated onto PS by various methods such as surface treatments (flame treated and chromic acid treated), non-reactive and reactive compounding (at different loadings of copolymers) and grafting of copolymer chains induced by UV irradiation. These functional groups, namely carboxylic acid, hydroxyl, styrene maleic anhydride (compounded and grafted) and poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME), introduced during treatment and modification of PS, may diffuse away from the surface into the bulk and vice versa. The treated and modified surfaces were investigated and compared using a range of surface analysis techniques, which include X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and contact angle measurement in conjunction with chemical derivatisation. [Continues.]

History

School

  • Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering

Department

  • Materials

Publisher

© Ng, Ting Ting

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2006

Notes

A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy at Loughborough University.

Language

  • en

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