화학공학소재연구정보센터
Macromolecules, Vol.49, No.1, 257-268, 2016
Major Impact of Cyclic Chain Topology on the T-g-Confinement Effect of Supported Thin Films of Polystyrene
High purity cyclic PS (c-PS) samples with number-average molecular weight (MW) of 3.4 and 9.1 kg/mol were synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization and "click" chemistry with narrow MW distribution. Bulk glass transition temperature (T-g) measured by differential scanning calorimetry exhibited a much weaker MW dependence for c-PS relative to its linear precursor and anionically polymerized linear PS (A-PS). Using ellipsometry and fluorescence spectroscopy, major differences were observed in the T-g-confinement effect in c-PS films supported on silicon substrates compared to A-PS. Whereas a large T-g reduction with confinement is commonly observed for A-PS supported on silica, within error, no confinement effect is seen in c-PS/3.4k films on Si/SiOx substrates down to 21 nm thickness. Although the c-PS linking group contains nitrogen and oxygen atoms potentially able to undergo hydrogen bonding, T-g is invariant with confinement for c-PS/3.4k or slightly reduced for c-PS/9.1k regardless of the level of substrate-surface hydroxyl groups. Ellipsometry indicates that the near elimination of the T-g-confinement effect in c-PS originates mainly from a very weak perturbation to T-g near the free surface (in comparison to linear PS) rather than a strong perturbation at the polymer-substrate interface. We hypothesize that unlike linear polymers, the packing efficiency of cyclic PS segments, i.e., cyclic PS fragility, is not significantly perturbed by the free surface, which in turn results in at most a very weak T-g perturbation at the free surface and an invariance of average T-g across the film with confinement.