Re-characterization of the surface properties of non-ionic cellulose ethers by means of column wicking technique

In addition to recently Luner and Oh used method for characterizing of the surface free energy for cellulose ether films, this paper shows the same values however using the column wicking technique. Since re-characterized values are found larger than that Luner and Oh reported, it is suggested that the values reported by Luner and Oh may represent only for degraded samples with respect to the preparation process these authors used. In this paper, the surface free energy for cellulose ethers has been found mainly contributed by the Lifshitz–van der Waals component, e.g. of about 99%, than that of the cellulose, usually small than 97%. Whereas the Lewis acid and Lewis base components for cellulose ethers have been found decreased for the former and increased for the latter, respectively, comparing to cellulose. Additionally, it is also found that the surface free energy fro cellulose ethers seems to be decreased with the increase of the viscosity, but it seems to be greater than that of cellulose as the same as Luner and Oh found.