Direct Observation of Conformational Relaxation of Polymer Chains at Surfaces
Description
Sum-frequency generation spectroscopy was employed to follow the conformation evolution of polystyrene chains at the surface of a spin-coated film in a temperature-ramping mode as well as under isothermal annealing. The conformation of surface chains in an as-cast film was observed to be in a nonequilibrium state, in accordance with reported results for polymer chains in thin spin-coated films. While the relaxation of surface nonequilibrium chains was induced by the enhanced surface mobility, the whole chain motion such as reptation might be a key factor in determining the time scale for equilibrating the surface chain conformation.
Journal
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- ACS Macro Letters
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ACS Macro Letters 7 (10), 1198-1202, 2018-09-17
American Chemical Society (ACS)