Münster 1999 – scientific programme

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CP: Chemische Physik

CP 25: Poster: Symposium: Benetzung und dünne Filme

CP 25.4: Poster

Monday, March 22, 1999, 18:00–20:00, R52/R72

Wetting Transition in Polymer Melts — •Erik Sch"affer, Elias Péréz, and Ullrich Steiner — Fakult"at f"ur Physik, Universit"at Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz

The central issue of our project is to find and characterize a wetting transition in macromolecular liquids. Compared to simple liquids, polymer melts feature reduced fluctuations near critical points and are therefore model liquids for the study of critical phenomena. We describe a new approach for the study of a wetting transition. As a main principle, we use self–assembled monolayers to fine–tune the substrate energy. This way, we are able to identify an experimentally accessible temperature window in which a wetting transition can be observed. On our poster, we present preliminary results which include the first qualitative observation of a wetting transition. Apart from these experiments on the spreading of relatively large drops (radius 10–100 µm), experimental developments are discussed which will lead to experiments on micrometer or sub–micrometer length scales.