Abstract
The alternating current (AC) chip nano-calorimetry is a powerful tool to investigate the physical properties of polymer thin films. In this paper, we report on the adsorption kinetics of polymers in which an AC chip nano-calorimetry was used for the first time. This technique allows for the real-time measurement of the adsorption kinetics of polymer chains onto the SiO2 surface. We used polystyrene (PS) and poly(9-anthracenyl methyl methacrylate) (PAMMA), which have different chemical natures and side group sizes. It was confirmed that the observed adsorption kinetics for PS were consistent with previously reported results obtained by dielectric spectroscopy. For PAMMA, we found characteristic adsorption kinetics, which shows a clear kink at the crossover between the early and later stages, while PS exhibits a lesser tendency of showing the kink as demonstrated by previously reported results.
Highlights
Polymer thin films are promising materials that facilitate advances in the industry and improvements in our daily lives
We found that cracking occurred occasionally for poly(9-anthracenyl methyl methacrylate) (PAMMA) films after the long-time annealing, which was probably caused due to dewetting during the adsorption process
Multiple experiments repeated carefully revealed that such cracks did not directly affect the heat capacity profile obtained by the nano-calorimetry
Summary
Polymer thin films are promising materials that facilitate advances in the industry and improvements in our daily lives. Due of their large surface-to-volume ratio in confined geometries, their properties, such as gas permittivity, density, creep behavior, relaxation time, and physical aging, significantly deviate from the bulk properties [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. To tailor the properties of polymer/inorganic composite materials, it is necessary to understand the behavior of the polymer chains near the interface. The adsorbed polymer layers have gained significant attention because a correlation was identified between the number of adsorbed chains and material properties [9,10,11,12]
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