Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 13: Poster: Interfaces and Thin Films

CPP 13.17: Poster

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 18:15–20:45, Poster A

Increased sorption of water investigating ultrathin polyvinylacetate films — •Heiko Huth and Christoph Schick — Universität Rostock, Institut für Physik, Wismarsche Straße 43-45, 18051 Rostock

Calorimetry is known as a very powerful tool for the characterization of a wide variety of materials and their transitions. There is an ongoing interest in improving the technique in order to achieve high sensitivity and precision. As one example there is thin film ac calorimetry able to measure in the nanometer range [1]. There is also an increasing interest in thin films and small sample sizes from a technological point of view. As these applications often include the presence of water the controlled humidity is used as a new parameter in addition to temperature for calorimetry. Also for biolgical samples as proteins for example there is an interest to measured under controlled humidity [2].

We show a new setup to measure heat capacity of thin films and samples under controlled humidity. As a first example thin films of polyvinylacetate are measured where a large influence of humidity on the glass transition is known from literature. In comparison to bulk samples the glass transition temperature is not changed while an increased sorption of water is observed measuring ultrathin films.

[1] Huth, H., Minakov, A. A., Schick, C., J. Polym. Sci. B Polym. Phys. 44 2996 (2006).

[2] Svanidze, A. V., H. Huth, et al. Applied Physics Letters 95 (26): 263702 (2009).