Berlin 2012 – scientific programme
Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help
O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 24: [DS] Organic electronics and photovoltaics: simulations and optics I (jointly with CPP, HL, O)
O 24.7: Talk
Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 11:00–11:15, H 2032
Interface Effects on the Glass Transition in Thin Polystyrene Films studied with High Temperature Single Molecule Fluorescence Microscopy — •Dominik Wöll1, Bente Flier2, Moritz Baier2, Klaus Müllen3, Stefan Mecking2, and Andreas Zumbusch2 — 1Zukunftskolleg, Universität Konstanz, Germany — 2Fachbereich Chemie, Universität Konstanz, Germany — 3Max-Planck-Institut für Polymerforschung Mainz, Germany
The glass transition is a ubiquitous phenomenon in many materials. Despite its high importance and considerable research efforts, a full understanding of this property is still lacking. In thin polymer films, interfaces complicate things as they alter the glass transition in their vicinity. Experimental approaches to study the influence of interfaces on dynamics in polymers are thus very challenging. In our contribution, we present single molecule fluorescence spectroscopy as a new method to investigate such interfacial effects on the glass transition of polymers. We measured the translational diffusion coefficients of single perylene diimide molecules in thin polystyrene films up to temperatures of 150 °C and analyzed their distributions. These distributions and the number of mobile molecules depend strongly on film thickness. They can be modeled with Monte Carlo random walk simulations assuming a reduced glass transition temperature and an increased residence probability of dye molecules at the polymer surface.