Properties of a polymer melt in contact with a solid surface

A. DE VIRGILIIS; A. MILCHEV

Titisee, Alemania

Workshop; Polymers under Constraints: Theory, Experiment, Simulations; 2010

UNIVERSIDAD JOHANNES GUTENBERG, MAINZ

A polymer melt made of linear, non-entangled chains is studied by means of molecular dynamics simulations of a bead and spring model. The system is put in contact with a solid wall consisting of a layer of atoms occupying the sites of a triangular lattice. This wall exerts an attractive potential on every monomer in such a way that a polymer film limited by the wall on the bottom and a free interface on the top is equilibrated. Structural and dynamical properties of the polymer melt are obtained, as a function of thedistance to the wall, z. Profiles for the monomer density, radius of gyration (both parallel and perpendicular), and bond length are described. Also the dependence of the monomer mobilities on z is presented, that shows a strong influence of the wall potential. Implications of these effects on the transport properties of the melt are briefly discussed.