Surface tension-driven flow techniques have recently emerged as an efficient means of shedding light into the rheology of thin polymer films. Motivated by experimental and theoretical approaches in films bearing a varying surface topography, we present results on the capillary relaxation of a square pattern at the free surface of a viscoelastic polymer film, using molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained polymer model. Height profiles are monitored as a function of time after heating the system above its glass-transition temperature and their time dependence is fitted to the theory of capillary leveling. Results show that the viscosity is not constant, but time dependent. In addition to providing a complementary insight about the local inner mechanisms, our simulations of the capillary-leveling process therefore probe the viscoelasticity of the polymer and not only its viscosity, in contrast to most experimental approaches.
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Molecular dynamics simulation of the capillary leveling of viscoelastic polymer films
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28 May 2017
Research Article|
March 30 2017
Molecular dynamics simulation of the capillary leveling of viscoelastic polymer films
I. Tanis;
I. Tanis
1Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, UMR CNRS Gulliver 7083,
ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University
, 75005 Paris, France
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H. Meyer;
H. Meyer
a)
2Université de Strasbourg, CNRS,
Institut Charles Sadron
, UPR 22, 67000 Strasbourg, France
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T. Salez;
T. Salez
1Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, UMR CNRS Gulliver 7083,
ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University
, 75005 Paris, France
3Global Station for Soft Matter, Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education,
Hokkaido University
, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0808, Japan
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E. Raphaël
;
E. Raphaël
1Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, UMR CNRS Gulliver 7083,
ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University
, 75005 Paris, France
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A. C. Maggs
;
A. C. Maggs
1Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, UMR CNRS Gulliver 7083,
ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University
, 75005 Paris, France
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J. Baschnagel
J. Baschnagel
2Université de Strasbourg, CNRS,
Institut Charles Sadron
, UPR 22, 67000 Strasbourg, France
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a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: hendrik.meyer@ics-cnrs.unistra.fr
J. Chem. Phys. 146, 203327 (2017)
Article history
Received:
November 15 2016
Accepted:
March 07 2017
Citation
I. Tanis, H. Meyer, T. Salez, E. Raphaël, A. C. Maggs, J. Baschnagel; Molecular dynamics simulation of the capillary leveling of viscoelastic polymer films. J. Chem. Phys. 28 May 2017; 146 (20): 203327. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4978938
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