Capillary Wrinkling of Floating Thin Polymer Films

Capillary wrinkling of floating thin polymer films.

A freely floating polymer film, tens of nanometers in thickness, wrinkles under the capillary force exerted by a drop of water placed on its surface. The wrinkling pattern is characterized by the number and length of the wrinkles. The dependence of the number of wrinkles on the elastic properties of the film and on the capillary force exerted by the drop confirms recent theoretical predictions ...

Wrinkling of Ultrathin Polymer Films

This paper presents a bilayer model to account for surface effects on the wrinkling of ultrathin polymer films. Assuming a surface layer of finite thickness, effects of surface properties on the critical strain, the equilibrium wavelength, and the wrinkle amplitude are discussed in comparison with conventional analysis. Experimental measurements of wrinkling in polymer films with thickness rang...

Polymer elasticity-driven wrinkling and coarsening in high temperature buckling of metal-capped polymer thin films.

We report the critical effects the deformational stress from the elastic nature of a confined polymer layer has during the relaxation process on the buckling of thin metal-polymer bilayer systems (less than 100 nm) even above the temperature at which the polymer is in the liquid flow region. In contrast with what is generally believed, the dispersion force does not play a significant role in th...

Capillary kinetics of thin polymer films in permeable microcavities

Dewetting of thin polymer films.

We study the dewetting of thin polymer films deposited on slippery substrate. Recent experiments on these systems have revealed many unexpected features. We develop here a model that takes into account the rheological properties of polymer melts, focussing on two dewetting geometries (the receding of a straight edge, and the opening of a hole). We show that the friction law associated with the ...