Mechanism study on surface activation of surfactant-modified polyvinyl siloxane impression materials

This study examined the mechanism on the surface activation of hydrophilic polyvinyl siloxane impression materials incorporated with nonionic surfactants. Hydrophilic polyvinyl siloxane impression materials were prepared with a polydimethylsiloxane composition and nonionic surfactants. The surfactants used were nonylphenoxy poly(ethyleneoxy) ethanol homologs of varying ethyleneoxy chain length. These homologs were designated NP4, NP6, and NP10 according to the mole number of ethyleneoxy group (hydrophilic group) of 4, 6, and 10, respectively. The incorporation of a nonionic surfactant into polyvinyl siloxanes enhanced their hydrophilicity and consequently led to the significant reduction in the contact angles. The higher the concentration of surfactant that was incorporated, the lower the contact angles that were observed. The contact angle was lowest when NP4 was incorporated, even though NP4 is less hydrophilic than NP6 and NP10, which implies that the exposed surfactant concentration on the surface was highest when NP4 was used. Relatively lower surface energy of NP4 among three surfactants would induce spatial distribution of NP4 on the hydrophobic surface of polyvinyl siloxane and consequently resulted in higher surfactant concentration on the surface of the silicone impression material. The surfactant dispersion size also seemed to be relevant for the surface activation in these surfactant‐modified silicone impression materials. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 92: 2395–2401, 2004