Two-dimensional nanometric confinement of entangled polymer melts

Entry by Yuhang Jin, AP225 Fall 2011

Reference

Yves Termonia, Polymer, 2011, 52, 5193.

Keywords

entangled polymer melts, two-dimensional confinement, Monte Carlo simulation

Introduction

Behavior of polymer chains under a two-dimensional confinement is of interest and importance to a variety of engineering applications, and has significant relevance to biological macromolecules as well. Both experimental studies and numerical approaches have been devoted to this topic, with a focus on thin polymer films whose thickness is smaller than the radius of gyration <math>R_g</math>. One important result of previous work is that for film thickness <math>h<R_g</math> the polymer chains retain their Gaussian behavior.