11/26/2010
Fluorocarbon Coatings Via Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl Acrylate - 2, Morphology, Wettability and Antifouling Characterization
(pages 926–938) Plasma Processes and Polymers 7 #11  (2010)
Kumar et al deposited fluorocarbon coatings on Thermanox coverslips and silicon wafers via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition  from perfluorodecyl acrylate (PFDA) monomer precursor.  The plasma mode, plasma power and pulse duty cycle played a pivotal role in tailoring the surface morphology, wettability and the surface energy of the coating.  A thin conformal PFDA coating transformed a super-hydrophilic Whatman filter paper into a super-hydrophobic and oleophobic surface, which has industrial applications for development of durable, stain resistance and liquid repellent papers.

Fluorocarbon Coatings Via Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl Acrylate-1, Spectroscopic Characterization by FT-IR and XPS
(pages 939–950) Plasma Processes and Polymers 7 #11  (2010)
Kumar et al deposited fluorocarbon coatings on Thermanox coverslips and silicon wafers via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition  from perfluorodecyl acrylate (PFDA) monomer precursor.  Pulse modulated mode, lower power, and lower DC plasma conditions yielded coatings with better chemical retention of precursor molecule shown by higher F/C ratio and CF2 group concentration, and lower CF/OCO concentration.  (RDC 11/23/2010)

11/19/2010
Plasma Surface Fluorination of Hydrogel Materials—Coating Stability and in vitro Biocompatibility Testing
 (164 – 182) Soft Materials 8, #2 (2010).
Bozukova et al attempted to form hydrophobic perfluorinated coatings on the surfaces of hydrophilic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-methyl methacrylate) [poly(HEMA-co-MMA)] substrates, used for the intraocular lenses.  Generally, the results showed poor stability of the coating and bring in question its covalent grafting to the surface.  (RDC 11/20/2010)

Superhydrophobic Surfaces of Electrodeposited Polypyrroles Bearing Fluorinated Liquid Crystalline Segments
(9365–9370) Macromolecules 43 #22 (2010)
Darmanin, de Givenchy and Guittard of the University of Nice, France produced a superhydrophobic surface by electrochemical polymerization of pyrrole monomers with fluorinated tails (F-butyl to F-octyl).  "The presence of mesogenic segments improves the surface hydrophobicity and increases the surface roughness, clearly observed with F-butyl and F-hexyl chains." (RDC 11/18/1010)

10/29/2010
Variations in cross-link density with deposition pressure in ultrathin plasma polymerized benzene and octafluorocyclobutane films 
(4390-4397) Polymer 51 #19 (2010)
Peri et al used neutron reflectometry (NR) to detemince the structure of polymerization octafluorocyclobutane (OFCB) and benzene (B) films deposited using Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) at two pressures (0.6 and 0.05 torr).  A 7 nm-thick surface layer and  1 nm-thick transition layer forms next to the substrate which have structures different than those in the middle of the film.  Tthe density of cross-linking next to the substrate is lower than that in the middle of the film or the region adjacent to the surface of the film for both precursors. Variations in the cross-link density with processing pressure are much stronger for PP-B films than for PP-OFCB films.