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Mechanical Properties of Polymer Nano-Films

Published

Author(s)

Junghyun Lee, Jun Y. Chung, Christopher Stafford

Abstract

Three fundamental mechanical properties of supported glassy polystyrene films with thickness ranging from 250 nm to 9 nm were quantitatively determined by a recently developed wrinkling-cracking method. Films below about 40 nm showed a decrease in both elastic modulus and fracture strength with decreasing film thickness, whereas the onset fracture strain was shown to increase. The observed variations in mechanical properties with respect to the bulk counterparts support the notion that a mechanically soft thin layer having a loosely-entangled chain network exists in the near-surface region of polymeric materials, whose contribution becomes more pronounced in thinner films.
Citation
ACS Macro Letters
Volume
1
Issue
1

Keywords

wrinkling, cracking, polymers, thin films, mechanical properties, modulus, fracture, toughness

Citation

Lee, J. , Chung, J. and Stafford, C. (2011), Mechanical Properties of Polymer Nano-Films, ACS Macro Letters (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created November 27, 2011, Updated October 12, 2021