A Review on the Glass Transition of Polymer on Surface and in the Thin Film

Abstract

Since the first paper by Keddie et al. published on 1994 [21], the glass transition of polymer systems on surface/thin film has been an active research field and attracted many groups interests. Numerous works have been done, in both experimental and computation approaches, to investigate this subject. In this paper we reviewed the milestone findings in the last twenty years. Generally with only minor disagreements in the mechanism all the mainstream works are consistent in the conclusions that: 1) Geometric confinement in thin film or on surface reduces the glass transition temperatureTgcomparing to the bulk behavior; 2) For supported film the substrate-film interaction is critical and its effect may surpass the geometry effects and rise increase onTg; 3) Chain mobility and molecular weight are critical but the detailed phenomena vary with systems. Notwithstanding the achievement has been made, due to the controversy of glass transition itself and technology limitation on characterization on glass transitions on thin film, the research in this field is still a long-marching effort and breakthrough findings are expected for the development in materials science and engineering and feedback knowledge to understand the glass transition on the theoretical base.