Effect of Annealing Induced Polymer Substrate Attachment on Swelling Dynamics of Ultrathin Polymer Films

TL;DR

This study investigates how annealing affects the swelling dynamics of ultrathin polyacrylamide films on silicon, revealing substrate interactions and segmental restrictions that influence swelling behavior and film density.

Contribution

It introduces a model combining free and restricted polymer segments to explain swelling dynamics, highlighting the role of substrate attachment after annealing.

Findings

Annealing increases film electron density.

Swelling dynamics depend on annealing temperature.

Restricted segments have significantly lower diffusion coefficients.

Abstract

The effect of annealing on the dynamical behavior of swelling for ultrathin polyacrylamide films deposited on silicon substrates have been studied using X-ray reflectivity technique. The spin coated polyacrylamide films of similar thicknesses were annealed at various temperatures below and above the glass transition temperature of the polymer. The electron density of the films was found to increase systematically on annealing. The swelling dynamics of the annealed films were found to have systematic dependence on the temperature of annealing. The interaction between the substrate and the polymer molecules was found to play important role in the swelling dynamics of the annealed films unlike our earlier observation with as coated films. The chain segments attached directly to the substrate were believed to have restricted freedom of movements compared to the ones that are at a distance from the substrate and relatively free. Accordingly, the dynamical behavior of swelling was modeled in terms of the combination of a free and a restricted component and was found to be in excellent agreement with the data. The diffusion coefficients corresponding to the restricted polymer segments were an order of magnitude smaller than those of the free segments and the fraction of the same was found to increase with annealing at higher temperatures. The overall reduction of swellability of the films was explained in terms of the increase of density of the films and the segmental attachment to the substrate on annealing.