Control of glass surface wettability via esterification with n-alkyl alcohols

Surface wettability plays an essential role in many processes and materials applications. It depends mainly on the surface roughness and chemical composition, thus through a controlled modification of these parameters, the wettability can be restrained. Glass is an inorganic solid material, composed mainly of amorphous silica, which surface, due to the presence of reactive hydroxyl groups, can be quite easily chemically modified. This feature can be used to control the wettability of glass by reaction with organic compounds. In this study, the esterification of glass silanol groups with n-alkyl alcohols (Cn/H2n+1/OH, n=3, 4, 6, 8, 10) was employed to modify its wettability. The effect of such modification on the physicochemical properties of glass surface was comprehensively investigated and characterised by the water contact angle, surface free energy, zeta potential, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. We demonstrate that the wettability of the esterified glass surface is strongly dependent on both the chain length of used alcohol and modification time. The alcohol molecule binds to the glass surface through a Si-O-C bond, leading to the formation of a monolayer that does not significantly affect the surface morphology and zeta potential. Conducted studies provided a broader view of the influence of this technique for modifying surface wettability on its physicochemical properties.