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Dynamics of Water-Induced Surface Reorganization in Poly(methyl methacrylate) Films
journal contribution
posted on 2012-06-12, 00:00 authored by Ayanobu Horinouchi, Hironori Atarashi, Yoshihisa Fujii, Keiji TanakaAt the outermost surface, aggregation states of polymers
generally
tend to alter to their most stable ones in response to their surrounding
environment. We here apply a time-resolved contact angle measurement
to study the rate of the surface reorganization of poly(methyl methacrylate)
(PMMA) in water. By doing these measurements at various temperatures,
it is possible to determine the apparent activation energy of the
surface dynamics based on the relation of the surface relaxation time
and temperature. Also, the sum-frequency generation spectroscopy revealed
that the surface reorganization involves the conformational changes
in the main chain part as well as the side chains. Hence, the dynamics
observed here may reflect the segmental motion at the outermost region
of the PMMA film, in which water plays as a plasticizer.