Title: Modifying Surface Fluctuations of Polymer Melt Films with Substrate Modification

Abstract

Deposition of a plasma polymerized film on a silicon substrate substantially changes the fluctuations on the surface of a sufficiently thin, melt polystyrene (PS) film atop the substrate. Surface fluctuation relaxation times measured with X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) for ca. 4R_g thick melt films of 131 kg/mol linear PS on silicon and on a plasma polymer modified silicon wafer can both be described using a hydrodynamic continuum theory (HCT) that assumes the film is characterized throughout its depth by the bulk viscosity. However, when the film thickness is reduced to ~3R_g, confinement effects are evident. The surface fluctuations are slower than predicted using the HCT, and the confinement effect for the PS on silicon is larger than that for the PS on the plasma polymerized film. This deviation is thus due to a difference in the thicknesses of the strongly adsorbed layers at the substrate which are impacted by the substrate surface energy.

Authors:

Zhou, Yang  ^[1];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-4276-6253"

He, Qiming ^[1]; Zhang, Fan ^[1]; Yang, Feipeng ^[1]; Narayanan, Suresh ^[2]; Yuan, Guangcui ^[3]; Dhinojwala, Ali  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Dhinojwala, Ali"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-3935-7467"

Foster, Mark D.  ^[1]

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Foster, Mark D."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-9201-5183"

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Univ. of Akron, OH (United States). Dept. of Polymer Science
2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). X-ray Science Division
3. National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States). Center for Neutron Research

Publication Date:

Mon Aug 14 00:00:00 EDT 2017

Research Org.:

Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States); USDOC

OSTI Identifier:

1439865

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-06CH11357; FA7000-14-2-20016; W911NF-09-1-0122

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

ACS Macro Letters

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 6; Journal Issue: 9; Journal ID: ISSN 2161-1653

Publisher:

American Chemical Society (ACS)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY