How does polymer architecture affect the fragility of ultra-thin films?

ORAL

Abstract

It is widely understood that the glass transition temperature and fragility of thin polymer films can drastically differ from that of the bulk polymer. In this talk, our focus is to show how polymer architecture affects glass formation in thin films, with an emphasis on changes of fragility. We use molecular dynamics simulations to contrast the behavior of coarse-grained supported polymer films of PEO (which has no sidegroup) and PMMA (which does have a sidegroup). The differences between these polymers are most noticeable in the vicinity of the supporting substrate and free interface, where packing consideration are more affected by the polymer architecture.

*Computer time was provided by Wesleyan University. This work was supported in part by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Award 70NANB15H282

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Presenters

  • Amber Storey

    • Wesleyan University

Authors

  • Amber Storey

    • Wesleyan University

  • Wengang Zhang

    • National Institute of Standards and Technology
    • Materials Science and Engineering Division, NIST

  • Jack Douglas

    • National Institute of Standards and Technology
    • Materials Science and Engineering Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology
    • Materials Science and Engineering Division, NIST
    • Materials Science and Engineering Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899

  • Francis Starr

    • Wesleyan University
    • Department of Physics, Wesleyan University
    • Department of of Physics, Wesleyan University
    • Physics Department, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT