Principal Investigator Robert Cohen
Project Website http://cohengroup.mit.edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/subproject-3/
This subproject deals with the study of the flow of a ‘stepped’ ultrathin film over time. The work is based on an earlier study at ESPCI by E. Raphael and K. Dalnoki (PRL 109, 128303 2012) that was done on non-polar glassy polymer films. Evolution of the shape of the originally-sharp discontinuity in film height enables quantitative elucidation of the rheological properties of the material at the nanoscale. Our current work is focused on producing similar sharp steps in films of glassy polymers and polymer blends that exhibit varying degrees of H-bonding interactions between the chains. Samples will be sent to ESPCI for examination in shape relaxation experiments to determine the extent to which H-bonding influences rheological behavior.