Why do Thin Polymer Films Melt at Lower Temperature? A Continuum Approach

Details Why do Thin Polymer Films Melt at Lower Temperature? A Continuum Approach Why do Thin Polymer Films Melt at Lower Temperature? A Continuum Approach

2001-04-03

arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0104057v1

Physics

Condensed Matter

Soft Condensed Matter

4 pages in twocolumn RevTeX style (LaTeX). Filename: Tg(h).tex. Furthermore 1 figure, enclosed in both EPS (encapsulated post

Scientific paper

We have investigated the reduction of the glass transition temperature, $T_g$, for thin supported films of particularly small molecular weight ($M_W$ = 2 kg/mol) polystyrene, and found good agreement with earlier studies on larger molecules. By combining the eigenmodes of the films with mode coupling theory, we arrive at a simple and predictive model which is in quantitative agreement with the data. Its only fitting parameter is the shear modulus governing the relevant fluctuations. The weak dependence of the latter upon the molecular weight of the polymer is in accordance with the general observation that the reduction of $T_g$ is largely independent of chain length at sufficiently low molecular weight.

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