Interfacial shear rheology of highly confined glassy polymers

Abstract

We present results on interfacial shear rheology measurements on Langmuir monolayers of two different polymers, poly(vinyl acetate) and poly(methyl methacrylate) as a function of surface concentration and temperature. While for the high glass transition poly(methyl methacrylate) polymer we find a systematic transition from a viscous dominated regime to an elastic dominated regime as surface concentration is increased, monolayers of the low glass transition polymer, poly(vinyl acetate), remain viscous even at very high surface concentrations. We further interpret the results in terms of the soft glassy rheology model of Sollich et al. [P. Sollich, F. C. Lequeux, P. Hebraud and M. E. Cates, Phys. Rev. Lett., 1997, 78, 2020–2023] and provide evidence of possible reduction in glass transition temperatures in both poly(methyl methacrylate) and poly(vinyl acetate) monolayers due to finite size effects.