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Dewetting as an investigative tool for studying properties of thin polymer films

Günter Reiter, Samer Al Akhrass, Moustafa Hamieh, Pascal Damman, Sylvain Gabriele, Thomas Vilmin, Elie Raphaël. Eur. Phys. J. - Special Topics 166, 165-172 (2009)

Abstract

Employing mass conservation, time-resolved dewetting experiments of thin polymer films allow to determine in real time the dynamic contact angle and the slippage length. Moreover, based on a systematic variation of interfacial properties of a polymer brush, dewetting makes it possible to calculate the force it needs to extract a single polymer chain from its own melt. In the visco-elastic regime close to the glass transition, the temperature and molecular weight dependence of the relaxation time of residual stresses resulting from film preparation by spin-coating can be obtained from the evolution of the shape of the dewetting rim. The presented examples demonstrate that dewetting represents a powerful approach for a sensitive characterization of rheological, frictional and interfacial properties of thin polymer films.

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