Influence of different surface textures on wettability of UHMWPE and POM- an experimental study

Polyoxymethylene (POM) and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) are widely used in aerospace, petrochemical, marine engineering, medical equipment and other fields, because of their high elasticity, low density, high strength and high toughness. This paper studied the solid-liquid contact phenomenon by measuring the contact angle between these two polymers and water droplets. The orthogonal test data of surface contact angle between UHMWPE/water and POM/water were processed by using the range analysis method. The effects of surface texture, shape and size on the wettability of UHMWPE and POM were studied. The results show that there is a significant correlation between the roughness of UHMWPE and POM and the contact angle, and the trend is basically the same. Through the relationship between roughness of different texture surfaces and contact angle range R, it can be concluded that the greater the roughness, the lower the influence of surface texture size parameters. The influence of four texture shapes on the surface wettability of UHMWPE and POM was analyzed. The results show that the surface wettability of UHMWPE and POM is affected by four texture shapes in the order of square > circle > hexagon > groove shape, and that different surface texture parameters have different effects on the contact angle of water droplets on different texture shapes. The surface wettability of UHMWPE is more easily affected by the structure width W. The surface wettability of POM is more easily affected by the spacing width B, and it shows stronger hydrophobicity. This discovery may provide a certain reference value for the preparation of hydrophobic and superhydrophobic surfaces. It is great significance to optimize the surface texture and improve the wettability of the material.