Surface Functionalized Polyethylene Film.

This project has: 1) Developed practical methods for oxidizing the surface of low-density polyethylene film and introducing reactive organic functionality into this oxidized surface layer. 2) Explored new techniques for analyzing the surfaces of organic polymeric solids. Contact angle titration--the study of the contact angle of water on organic solids as a function of pH--has proved particularly useful and extremely surface sensitive. 3) Characterized a series of new phenomena occurring in thin organic surface layers, including thermal reconstruction of the surface (a process during which functional groups in the surface migrate into the deeper parts of the polymer). 4) Examined the basic physical organic chemistry of wetting of organic solids. and 5) Applied the information from these studies to the synthesis of new interface-modifying agents, especially for adhesion promotion.