Loss and recovery of hydrophobicity, surface energies, diffusion coefficients and activation energy of nylon

The loss of hydrophobicity of nylon 6/6 caused by immersion in saline water for up to 336 h at different conductivities (0.005 to 100 mS/cm) and different temperatures (0 to 98°C) and its subsequent recovery in air (during 4500 h) have been investigated. The hydrophobicity is determined by measuring the static contact angle θ between the tangent to a droplet of distilled water and the horizontal surface. The changes in the surface roughness and in the weight of the specimens were determined and correlated with the changes in the contact angle. It has been found that θ decreased with increasing conductivity and increasing temperature of the saline solution. After removal from the solution, the higher the conductivity and temperature, the longer it took for θ to recover in air. θ decreased from 70° to 54° after nylon was subjected for 521 h to a uniform field of 15 kV_dc/cm in air. The surface free energy of nylon was determined as a function of time of immersion, the conductivity and temperature of the solution and during the recovery in air. The surface energies calculated for the virgin specimen are in good agreement with the literature. The diffusion coefficient of water into nylon increased from 0.23×10^-12 m²/s at 23°C to 7.4×10^-12 m²/s at 75°C. The activation energy was determined to be 59.4±2.2 kJ/mol. For unaged nylon the surface energies were determined at 23°C to be γ_S=44.7 mJ/m², γ_SD=29.3 mJ/m², γ_SH=15.4 mJ/m², W_SL =97.7 mJ/m² and γ_SL=19.8 mJ/m²