Wettability of bare and fluorinated silanes: a combined approach based on surface free energy evaluations and dipole moment calculations.

The assessment of the surface free energy (SFE) of a material permits to control and predict a large number of physicochemical properties of a solid surface and its reactivity. Here, the surface energies of a series of bare and fluorinated silanes are determined by means of different semi-empirical models on the grounds of contact angle determinations for different solvents. Literature data are also considered in order to produce a series of films with increasing SFE. Wetting envelopes (WE) are obtained for the various surfaces in order to predict the wettability of the films by numerous commonly employed solvents. The polar and disperse components of the surface energies are obtained by the Owens-Wendt-Rabel-Kaelbe (OWRK) method; the values of the polar components are compared with gas-phase dipole moments obtained by theoretical calculations employing semi-empirical Hamiltonians. The sequences of the polar components of the SFE and of the calculated dipole moments for the different molecules are strictly the same. The interplay between theoretical and experimental approaches proves efficient in predicting the behavior of different systems and it could be employed in tuning the SFE of a solid surface with respect to its final applications.