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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Cooling Rate Dependent Ellipsometry Measurements to Determine the Dynamics of Thin Glassy Films
Published on: January 26, 2016
Frictional dissipation and interfacial glass transition of polymeric solids
Lionel Bureau1, Christiane Caroli, Tristan Baumberger
1Institut des Nanosciences de Paris, UMR 7588 CNRS-Université Paris 6, 140 rue de Lourmel, 75015 Paris, France. bureau@insp.jussieu.fr
Abstract:
We present single contact friction experiments between a glassy polymer and smooth silica substrates grafted with alkylsilane layers of different coverage densities and morphologies. This allows us to adjust the polymer-substrate interaction strength. We find that, when going from weak to strong interaction, the response of the interfacial junction where shear localizes evolves from that of a highly viscous threshold fluid to that of a plastically deformed glassy solid. This we analyze as resulting from an interaction-induced "interfacial glass transition" helped by pressure.
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