Dynamics of Confined Polymer Films Measured via Thermal Wrinkling

Published

October 19, 2007

Author(s)

Kirt A. Page, Derek L. Patton, Rui Huang, Christopher Stafford

Abstract

In the past several years there have been a number of advances in the understanding of the physics of polymer thin films. However, there still remains a wide range of opportunities to further this understanding through the development of measurement tools capable of probing the physical behavior of polymer films on the sub-micrometer size scale. Here we employ a laser-light, surface scattering technique to probe the early stages of the development of the wrinkle wavelength and amplitude of a polystyrene film capped with a thin layer of aluminum subjected to isothermal annealing. The initial stages of amplitude growth reflect the viscous response of the polymer film to the buckling instability, while the long-time amplitude behavior is related to the rubbery nature of the material and can reveal information about the relaxation behavior of the polymer chains in this confined geometry.

Proceedings Title

American Chemical Society Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering| |Proceedings of the ACS Division of Polymeric Materials: Science & Engineering |ACS

Conference Dates

August 19-23, 2007

Conference Location

Boston, MA, US

Conference Title

American Chemical Society (Acs)

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

annealing, buckling, light scattering, polymer, thin film, wrinkling

Citation

Page, K. , Patton, D. , Huang, R. and Stafford, C. (2007), Dynamics of Confined Polymer Films Measured via Thermal Wrinkling, American Chemical Society Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering| |Proceedings of the ACS Division of Polymeric Materials: Science & Engineering |ACS, Boston, MA, US, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=854494 (Accessed October 11, 2025)