Most polymers solidify into a glassy amorphous state, accompanied by a rapid increase in the viscosity when cooled below the glass transition temperature (T(g)). There is an ongoing debate on whether the T(g) changes with decreasing polymer film thickness and on the origin of the changes. We measured the viscosity of unentangled, short-chain polystyrene films on silicon at different temperatures and found that the transition temperature for the viscosity decreases with decreasing film thickness, consistent with the changes in the T(g) of the films observed before. By applying the hydrodynamic equations to the films, the data can be explained by the presence of a highly mobile surface liquid layer, which follows an Arrhenius dynamic and is able to dominate the flow in the thinnest films studied.

Qualitatively different thickness dependences have been observed in the glass transition temperature, T g , of polystyrene (PS) films supported by hydrogen-passivated silicon (H-Si). It has been suggested that upon annealing at high temperatures in air, the polymer/substrate interface of these films (i.e., PS/Si), though buried underneath the PS layer, might be oxidized, rendering the films a different polymer/ substrate interface (i.e., PS/SiO x -Si), which may account for the different thickness dependences of the T g observed. In this experiment, we examine if the buried substrate interface of PS/H-Si films can indeed be oxidized by annealing the films at 150 °C in air. Our result shows that a residual film does form on top of the H-Si surface, but it is a bound layer of PS. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) analyses and independence of the residual film on the initial PS thickness evidence that the H-Si substrate buried underneath a PS film is not oxidized by annealing. We discuss a possible explanation to how the different thickness dependences may be observed in the T g of these films.

The local conformation of polymer chains in a film at a substrate interface was examined by sum-frequency generation spectroscopy. When a polystyrene (PS) film was prepared on a quartz substrate by a spin-coating method, the chains were aligned in the interfacial plane of the substrate. A dissipative particle dynamics simulation revealed that a spinning torque induced the chain orientation during the film preparation process and the extent of the orientation was a function of the distance from the interface. This interfacial orientation of chains was not observed for a PS film prepared by a solvent-casting method. Interestingly, the local conformation of chains at the substrate interface was unchanged even at a temperature that was 80 K higher than the bulk glass transition temperature (T g). This observation means that polymer chains at the substrate interface can be only partially relaxed under conditions where the bulk chains are fully relaxed. On the other hand, interfacial chains could be easily relaxed by solvent annealing.

Density profiles of a perdeuterated poly(methyl methacrylate) (dPMMA) film spin-coated on a substrate in water, hexane, and methanol, which are "nonsolvents" for dPMMA, were examined along the direction normal to the interface by specular neutron reflectivity (NR). The interfaces of dPMMA with the liquids were diffuse in comparison with the pristine interface with air; the interfacial width with water was thicker than that with hexane. Interestingly, in water, the dPMMA film was composed of a swollen layer and the interior region, which also contained water, in addition to the diffused layer. The interface of dPMMA with hexane was sharper than that with water. Although there were slight indications of a swollen layer for the dPMMA in hexane, the solvent molecules did not penetrate significantly into the film. On the other hand, in methanol, the whole region of the dPMMA film was strikingly swollen. To conserve mass, the swelling of the film by the nonsolvents is accompanied by an increase in the film thickness. The change in the film thickness estimated by NR was in excellent accord with the results of direct observations using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The modulus of dPMMA in the vicinity of the interfaces with liquids was also examined on the basis of force-distance curves measured by AFM. The modulus decreased closer to the outermost region of the film. The extent to which the modulus decreased in the interfacial region was consistent with the amount of liquid sorbed into the film.

At the outermost surface, aggregation states of polymers generally tend to alter to their most stable ones in response to their surrounding environment. We here apply a time-resolved contact angle measurement to study the rate of the surface reorganization of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) in water. By doing these measurements at various temperatures, it is possible to determine the apparent activation energy of the surface dynamics based on the relation of the surface relaxation time and temperature. Also, the sum-frequency generation spectroscopy revealed that the surface reorganization involves the conformational changes in the main chain part as well as the side chains. Hence, the dynamics observed here may reflect the segmental motion at the outermost region of the PMMA film, in which water plays as a plasticizer.