Annealing effects on thickness of polystyrene thin films as studied by neutron reflectivity

T. Kanaya*, T. Miyazaki, H. Watanabe, K. Nishida, H. Yamano, S. Tasaki, D. B. Bucknall

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

84 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We performed neutron reflectivity measurements on deuterated polystyrene thin films supported on silicon substrate as a function of temperature. In order to see effects of annealing on the thickness, the films were annealed at 80°C for 12 h and 135°C for 12 h, termed weakly and strongly annealed films, respectively. One of the main purpose of this study is to see if the negative expansivity reported for very thin films [Phys. Rev. Lett. 71 (1993) 867] is caused by unrelaxed structure due to lack of annealing. It was found that the weakly annealed films show negative expansivity in the glassy state and it disappears for the strongly annealed films with thickness above about 90 Å. This suggests that the negative expansivity is due to the unrelaxed structure. In addition to this relaxation process, the thickness difference between the heating process and the cooling process suggests that there is another very slow relaxation process in thin films detectable at around 135°C or about 32°C above the glass transition temperature Tg. As a candidate for this slow process a sliding motion proposed by de Gennes is discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3769-3773
Number of pages5
JournalPolymer
Volume44
Issue number14
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Jun 2003

Keywords

  • Glass transition
  • Negative expansivity
  • Polymer thin film

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Organic Chemistry
  • Polymers and Plastics

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