Surfactant distribution in waterborne acrylic films: 2. Surface investigation

This paper presents results on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) enrichment at the surface of pure acrylic or acrylic/laponite composite latex films. Surface concentrations were measured by Confocal Raman Spectroscopy leading to higher values than the nominal concentration of 6 wt%. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analyses showed uppermost surface layers saturated with SDS in most cases. High resolution Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) revealed a variety of morphologies for these surfactant top layers, highlighting the occurrence of SDS bilayers in different configurations. In an attempt to check for a correlation between the surface concentration of the surfactant in dry films and the concentration of free surfactant in water in the initial latex, this latter concentration was determined from the level of the plateau in adsorption isotherms. Adsorption studies by conductimetry showed an unexpected increase of the amount of adsorbed SDS with pH. The proposed interpretation is that, upon acrylic acid neutralization, the chains at the surface become more hydrophilic and spread out in water, revealing more sites for SDS to adsorb on. No correlation between free surfactant and surface enrichment could be established, indicating that the enrichment process is more complex than expected.