Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 9, 2026

Cooling Rate Dependent Ellipsometry Measurements to Determine the Dynamics of Thin Glassy Films
Published on: January 26, 2016
Surface glass transition in bimodal polystyrene mixtures
J Erichsen1, T Shiferaw, V Zaporojtchenko
1Chair for Multicomponent Materials, Institute for Materials Science, Christian-Albrechts University at Kiel, Kaiserstr. 2, 24143, Kiel, Germany.
Abstract:
Using the cluster-embedding method of V. Zaporojchenko et al. (Macromolecules 34, 1125 (2000)), we measured the glass transition temperature T (g) at the polystyrene/vacuum interface of bimodal mixtures of monodisperse polystyrenes of 3.5k and 1000k. Embedding of approximately 1 nm Au clusters was monitored in situ by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The clusters were formed by evaporation of Au onto the polymer surface. Only one glass transition was observed in the mixtures. The surface glass transition temperatures are correlated to but are below the bulk values of the mixtures and obey the Gordon-Taylor equation. The results suggest that the earlier reported molecular-weight dependence of the surface glass transition is not due to segregation of short chains to the surface.
Related Concept Videos
Polymer Classification: Stereospecificity
Molecular Weight of Step-Growth Polymers
As the step-growth polymerization involves step-wise condensation of monomers, the molecular weight also builds up eventually. Consequently, high molecular weight polymers are obtained at the late stages of the polymerization, where 99% of monomers have been consumed.
The extent of the...
Plastic Behavior
Classification and Mechanical Properties of Synthetic Polymers
Polymer Classification: Crystallinity
Crystalline domains are the regions where polymer chains are aligned in an orderly manner and held together in proximity by intermolecular forces. For example, chains in the crystalline domains of polyethylene and nylon are bound together by van der Waals...
Polymers: Molecular Weight Distribution

