Preparation and Properties of Long-Chain Fluoroaliphatic Alcohol-Ethylene Oxide Adducts

Fluorinated nonionic surfactants : CF3 (CF2) 5CH2O (C2H4O) pH, CF3 (CF2) 5CH2CH2O (C2H4O) pH, and CF3 (CF2) 7CH2CH2O (C2H4O) p'H (p=1, 3, 5, 10, 20, p'=1, 3) were prepared by the addition of ethylene oxide (EO) to long-chain fluoroalcohols in the presence of a base or an acid catalyst and their physicochemical properties were clarified.Cloud points of aqueous solutions of those adducts were found to be higher with increase in the number of oxyethylene units. For the same number of oxyethylene units, these cloud points decreased with increase in the carbon chain length of the starting alcohols. Among those adducts, CF3 (CF2) 5-CH2O (C2H4O) pH showed the best surface activities; especially the 10mol EO adduct had a strong emul-sifying power toward xylene, and the 20mol EO adduct exhibited a good foaming property. Aqueous solutions of these adducts generally had low surface tension, and CF3 (CF2) 5CH2O (C2H4O) 3H showed the lowest aqueous surface tension (15.4dyn/cm) of the adducts. The cmc values for the fluorinated surfactants increased with increase in the number of oxyethylene units.These results were compared with those reported previously, and discussion was made on the characteristics of the surface activities of the fluoroalcohol- EO adducts.