Fluorocarbon Coatings Via Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl Acrylate - 2, Morphology, Wettability and Antifouling Characterization

Low surface energy fluorocarbon polymer coatings were prepared via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of 1H,1H,2H,2H‐perfluorodecyl acrylate (PFDA) in a low pressure inductively excited RF plasma. The influence of plasma parameters, such as, deposition time, continuous wave (CW) and pulse modulated (PM) plasma mode, plasma power and plasma duty cycle (DC) on morphology and wettablity of the PFDA was investigated using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and contact angle (CA) measurement techniques. The plasma mode, plasma power and pulse duty cycle played a pivotal role in tailoring the surface morphology, wettability and the surface energy of the PFDA coating. The water CA hysteresis values for PFDA coatings suggested the wetting characteristics of the coating satisfying Wenzel model of nanostructured solid‐water wetted contact. A thin conformal PFDA coating transformed a super‐hydrophilic Whatman filter paper into a super‐hydrophobic and oleophobic surface, which has industrial applications for development of durable, stain resistance and liquid repellent papers. The antifouling property of PFDA coatings investigated by quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) exhibited the protein repellent behavior against three model proteins namely, ovalbumin (OVA), human serum albumin (HSA) and fibrinogen (FGN). In this study, we have demonstrated that surface morphology and surface energy of plasma polymerized coating of high molecular weight unsaturated fluorocarbon precursor (PFDA) can be regulated by the plasma parameters, such as plasma mode, plasma power and pulse duty cycle. The plasma polymerized PFDA coating exhibits significant protein repellent behavior against proteins, indicating the antifouling characteristics of the coatings. The plasma polymerized conformal PFDA thin coating transforms a super‐hydrophilic Whatman filter paper surface in to a super‐hydrophobic and oleophobic surface.