TY - JOUR A1 - Yin, Huajie A1 - Napolitano, S. A1 - Schönhals, Andreas T1 - Molecular mobility and glass transition of thin films of poly(bisphenol A carbonate) JF - Macromolecules N2 - Glass transition behavior of thin poly(bisphenol A carbonate) (PBAC) films capped between two aluminum (Al) layers is investigated by means of dielectric expansion dilatometry and dielectric relaxation spectroscopy accompanied by contact angle measurements. The thermal glass transition temperature is more or less independent of the film thickness down to 20 nm. For thickness below 20 nm, an increase of Tg is observed. Meanwhile, an increase of the relaxation time at a fixed temperature is observed for the film with the thickness of 19 nm on the basis of a careful analysis of the temperature dependence of the relaxation rates. A more detailed analysis of the relaxation map reveals that the Vogel temperature increases and the fragility decreases systematically with decreasing film thickness. These properties are discussed in terms of the formation of a boundary layer with PBAC segments adsorbed onto the Al electrode due to the strong interaction between the Al and PBAC layers (2.51 mJ/m²), which results in a reduced molecular mobility with regard to bulk PBAC behavior. As the dielectric strength is proportional to the number of segments fluctuating on the time and length scale of the dynamic glass transition, it is used as a unique probe of the deviations from bulk behavior. The temperature dependence of the penetration depth of the interfacial interactions on the structural relaxation is further quantitatively determined. The dynamic length scale of the perturbations into the chain conformations responsible for the deviation from bulk behavior is estimated to be smaller than 9 nm. PY - 2012 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/ma202127p SN - 0024-9297 SN - 1520-5835 VL - 45 IS - 3 SP - 1652 EP - 1662 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington, DC AN - OPUS4-25472 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -