Shear Deformation in Thin Polymer Films as a Probe of Entanglement in Confined Systems

Abstract

We present the results of our study of the shear deformation zone in free-standing thin polymer films as a probe of entanglement in confined systems. A stretching system was used to uniaxially strain thin polystyrene (PS) films. Atomic force microscopy was used to measure the thicknesses of the shear deformation zone (SDZ), hc, and the film thicknesses h. The maximum extension ratio 2 - h/hc, was measured as a function of film thickness. The results show that A increases with the decreasing film thickness which implies an increase in the entanglement molecular weight in confinement. The same experiments were carried out for thin PS film with different molecular weights. A tentative model was developed to explain the experimental results and found to be in good agreement with the data. More exciting is the fact that the model predicts a scaling dependence on the polymer molecular weight which was also observed.