Physical Adsorption and Glass Transition of Thin Polystyrene Films at a Graphene Interface

Jin-Tian Luo; Hao Zha; Hou-Kuan Tian; Biao Zuo

doi:10.1007/s10118-024-3241-2

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Physical Adsorption and Glass Transition of Thin Polystyrene Films at a Graphene Interface

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2025-07-15

- Physical Adsorption and Glass Transition of Thin Polystyrene Films at a Graphene Interface
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science Vol. 43, Issue 7, Pages: 1163-1169(2025)
- Affiliations：
  
  School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Surface & Interface Science of Polymer Materials of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
- Author bio：
  
  chemizuo@zstu.edu.cn
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-024-3241-2
  CLC：
- Received：08 August 2024，
  
  Revised：07 September 2024，
  
  Accepted：23 September 2024，
  
  Published Online：14 November 2024，
  
  Published：01 July 2025
- Accepted：
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Luo, J. T.; Zha, H.; Tian, H. K.; Zuo, B. Physical adsorption and glass transition of thin polystyrene films at a graphene interface. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2025, 43, 1163–1169

Jin-Tian Luo, Hao Zha, Hou-Kuan Tian, et al. Physical Adsorption and Glass Transition of Thin Polystyrene Films at a Graphene Interface[J]. Chinese journal of polymer science, 2025, 43(7): 1163-1169.
Luo, J. T.; Zha, H.; Tian, H. K.; Zuo, B. Physical adsorption and glass transition of thin polystyrene films at a graphene interface. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2025, 43, 1163–1169 DOI： 10.1007/s10118-024-3241-2.

Jin-Tian Luo, Hao Zha, Hou-Kuan Tian, et al. Physical Adsorption and Glass Transition of Thin Polystyrene Films at a Graphene Interface[J]. Chinese journal of polymer science, 2025, 43(7): 1163-1169. DOI： 10.1007/s10118-024-3241-2.

摘要

This work reveals a new interfacial effect induced by polymer adsorption for tuning the dynamics of polymer thin films. Strong polymer/substrate interaction leads to the formation of an ultra-dense adsorbed layer

atop which the dynamics of thin films could be accelerated

complementing current knowledge that interfacial adsorption retards the dynamics.

Abstract

Polymer adsorption at solid interfaces plays an important role in the dynamics of nanoscale polymer films. We investigated the influence of the interfacial chain adsorption on the glass transition temperature (

) and dewetting of polystyrene (PS) thin films on a graphene substrate that has strong interaction with PS. We found that the

s of PS films show a non-monotonic trend with increasing amount of polymer adsorption at the interface—first increasing and then decreasing

and this change in

is accompanied by a wetting-dewetting transition of the PS films. Film morphological analysis showed that the PS films dewet from the interfacially adsorbed layers rather than from the substrate

i.e

autophobic dewetting

indicating the presence of an unfavorable interaction between the adsorbed and free PS chains. We ascribed the repulsive interaction to the formation of a dense adsorbed layer on graphene due to the

interaction between PS and graphene

which prevents the non-adsorbed PS chain from penetrating into the adsorbed layer. This may lead to drops in

at high adsorption extent.

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