Molecular Simulation of Ultrathin Polymeric Films near the Glass Transition

Abstract

Properties such as the glass transition temperature ( T(g)) and the diffusion coefficient of ultrathin polymeric films are shown to depend on the dimensions of the system. In this work, a hard-sphere molecular dynamics methodology has been applied to simulate such systems. We investigate the influence that substrates have on the behavior of thin polymer films; we report evidence suggesting that, depending on the strength of substrate-polymer interactions, the glass transition temperature for a thin film can be significantly lower or higher than that of the bulk.