Adsorption of dimethyl silicone onto hair-surface models prepared with micro-phase separated monolayers.

The adsorption of dimethylsilicone (DMS) from its emulsion onto hair-surface models was investigated. The model surfaces were prepared on silicon wafers by utilizing a micro-phase separation in mixed Langmuir monolayers with a chemically adsorptive organosilane, n-octadecyltriethoxysilane (ODTES), as one component. The resulting surfaces consisted of hydrophobic micro-domains of polymerized ODTES and a surrounding hydrophilic surface silanol (SiOH) region of the silicon wafer, corresponding to the healthy and damaged regions of the hair surface, respectively, in terms of surface wettability. DMS preferentially adsorbed onto the high surface energy hydrophilic region of the model surface when the hydrophobic micro-domains were composed of fully condensed alkyl chains. The surface energy of the micro-domains could be controlled by using palmitic acid (PA) as the second component to form the micro-domains in the phase-separated Langmuir monolayers. The increase in the surface energy of the micro-domains induced the adsorption of DMS onto the intrinsically hydrophobic domain surface.