1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method for modifying the surface of conventional commodity polymers, including without limitation polyurethanes, polyesters, polyethers, polyamides, polyimides, etc.
2. Background Description
Surface modification of a polymeric article is performed or attempted for a number of different reasons. For example, it may be desirable to have a bulk polymer that has a surface that is modified to better accept a paint or dye, or to have a surface that imparts a property such as resistance to chemical or radiant energy damage.
A number of different methods have been developed for modifying the surfaces of a polymer. Many of these methods involve post processing of the article. For example, the polymeric article may be exposed to a plasma, or a plasma processing step followed by grafting of compounds to the surface of the polymer. Also, the polymeric article might be subjected to a chemical or radiant energy exposure to alter the surface. It is known to combine a fluorinated polymer with a conventional polymer to get the surface-concentrated fluoropolymer. (Ji, Q.; Kang, H.; Wang, J.; Wang, S.; Glass, T. E.; McGrath, J. E., Surface characterization of fluorinated oxetane polyol modified polyurethane block copolymers, Polymer Preprints, 2000, 41, 346-347.) It is known that combining a fluorinated group with a UV absorbing chromophore surface-concentrates the chromophore.(Vogl, O.; Jaycox, G. D.; Hatada, K., Macromolecular design and architecture, Journal of Macromolecular Science-Chemistry, 1990, 27, 1781-1854.) It is known that combining a perfluorohexyl group with a fullerene surface-concentrates the fullerene at a styrene air interface. (Chen, W.; McCarthy, T. J., Adsorption/migration of a perfluorohexylated fullerene from the bulk to the polymer/air interface, Macromolecules, 1999, 32, 2342-2347.)