Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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SYMR: Symposium Nuclear Magnetic Resonance: from Applications in Condensed-Matter Physics to New Frontiers

SYMR 6: Polymer Dynamics

SYMR 6.9: Talk

Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 12:15–12:30, H48

Dynamics in thin polymer films probed by single molecule fluorescence microscopy at high temperatures — •Bente Flier, Moritz Baier, Johannes Huber, Dominik Wöll, Stefan Mecking, and Andreas Zumbusch — Fachbereich Chemie, Universität Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, 78457 Konstanz, Germany

Wide-field fluorescence microscopy is a versatile technique for the investigation of single molecule dynamics. We use this technique for the analysis of dynamical properties of thin polymer films in the vicinity of the glass transition temperature. In this contribution we present first results of high temperature single molecule studies above 400 K of polystyrene and poly butyl methacrylate films with thicknesses between 10 nm and 100 nm. For single molecule measurements fluorescent dyes are either covalently bound to the polymer chains or used as probes of free volume. The measurements yield the temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficients which can be explained by free-volume theory. Compared to bulk techniques, however, the single molecule approach allows for an investigation of diffusional heterogeneities.