TY - CONF A1 - Szymoniak, Paulina A1 - Madkour, Sherif A1 - Schönhals, Andreas T1 - Dynamics of nanoscopically confined PVME in thin films of an asymmetric PVME/PS blend N2 - In recent years, substantial efforts have been devoted to investigating nanoscopic confinement of polymers, and its effect on glassy dynamics. Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (BDS) was used to study the dynamics of ultra-thin films of PVME/PS 50/50 wt% blend, employing a novel nano-structured capacitor sample arrangement. The investigated system shows a complex dynamic behavior. First, an α-relaxation, related to a bulk-like layer was found. Second, an α’-relaxation was observed, characteristic for dynamically asymmetric blends, where the out of equilibrium dynamics is attributed to weakly-cooperative PVME segments relaxing within a frozen environment of PS segments. Thirdly, for thinnest films, an Arrhenius-like process was dominant in the dielectric spectra, indicating localized fluctuations of the segments. Relaxation rates of this process resembled that of the degenerated α-relaxation of the adsorbed layer, found for pure PVME, thus it was assigned accordingly. For thinnest films, this process undergoes a further confinement, due to the topological constraints, introduced by PS. Such multiple confinement effect has not been reported for ultra-thin films of polymer blends, before this study. T2 - Spring Meeting of German Physical Society CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 12.03.2018 KW - Thin polymeric films PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-44502 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Gawek, Marcel A1 - Madkour, Sherif A1 - Hertwig, Andreas A1 - Schönhals, Andreas T1 - Growth Kinetics and Molecular Mobility of Irreversibly Adsorbed Layers in Thin Polymer Films N2 - In well-annealed thin polymer films, with non-repulsive polymer/substrate interactions, an irreversibly adsorbed layer is expected to form. These adsorbed layers have shown great potential for technological applications. However, their growth kinetics and molecular dynamics are still not fully understood. This is partially due to the hard accessibility of these layers in thin films. Here, the irreversibly adsorbed layers of homopolymer thin films are revealed by solvent-leaching experiments. First, the growth kinetics of these layers is investigated as a function of annealing times and original film thickness. The thickness, topography and quality of the adsorbed layer is controlled with Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Secondly, the molecular mobility of the adsorbed layer is investigated with Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (BDS). A recently developed nanostructured capacitor is employed to measure the adsorbed layers with a free surface layer. The results are quantitatively compared and discussed with respect to recently published work. T2 - Spring Meeting of German Physical Society CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 12.03.2018 KW - Thin polymeric films KW - Dielectric spectroscopy PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-44489 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Gawek, Marcel A1 - Hertwig, Andreas A1 - Schönhals, Andreas T1 - Growth Kinetics and Molecular Mobility of Irreversibly Adsorbed Layers in Thin Polymer Films N2 - In well-annealed thin polymer films, with non-repulsive polymer/substrate interactions, an irreversibly adsorbed layer is formed. These adsorbed layers have shown enormous potential for technological applications. The growth kinetics and molecular dynamics of these buried layers in thin films are still not fully investigated due to the hard accessibility. Here, the irreversibly adsorbed layers of homopolymer thin films are revealed by solvent-leaching experiments. The growth kinetics of these layers is investigated as a function of original film thickness and annealing times. The thickness, topography and quality of the adsorbed layer is determined with Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and spectroscopic ellipsometry. Additionally, the molecular mobility of the adsorbed layer is investigated with Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (BDS). A recently developed nanostructured capacitor (NSC) is employed to measure the adsorbed layers with a free surface layer depending on annealing and solvent-leaching time. The results are quantitatively compared and discussed with respect to recently published work. T2 - Spring Meeting of German Physical Society CY - Regensburg, Germany DA - 31.03.2019 KW - Adsorbed layer KW - Thin polymeric films PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-47767 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -