Effect of Different Poly (ethylene terephethalate) Hydrolysis to Manipulate Proper Nano-Surface Structures for Fabricating Ultra hydrophobic Substrate

To achieve ultra hydrophobic Poly (ethylene terephthalate), PET substrate, two liquid etching methods of alkaline hydrolysis and aminolysis were applied to influence surface topography. To create low surface energy a layer of fluorocarbon was coated on the surface. The preferences of two methods were investigated by SEM microscopy, 3M water and oil repellency, sliding angle, self-cleaning and tensile properties. The results indicated that both chemical etching methods are able to create proper surface roughness and there is no necessity to apply nano particles which have a lot of side effects. However, the conventional polyester weight reduction process, alkaline hydrolysis, compared to the aminolysis process, presents better procedure for industrial scale manufacturing of ultra hydrophobic polyester substrates, by which the etching effect more or less is limited to the substrate surface.