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Recent experiments of thin films flowing down a vertical fiber with varying nozzle diameters present a wealth of new dynamics that illustrate the need for more advanced theory. We present a detailed analysis using a full lubrication model…
Thin polymer films have striking dynamical properties that differ from their bulk counterparts. With the simple geometry of a stepped polymer film on a substrate, we probe mobility above and below the glass transition temperature…
To study the cooling behavior and the glass transition of polymer melts in bulk and with free surfaces a coarse-grained weakly semi-flexible polymer model is developed. Based on a standard bead spring model with purely repulsive…
Freestanding thin polymer films with high molecular weights exhibit an anomalous decrease in the glass-transition temperature with film thickness. Specifically, in such materials, the measured glass-transition temperature evolves in an…
When a glassy polymer film is formed by evaporation, the region near the free surface is polymer rich and becomes glassy first, as noticed long ago by Scriven et al. We discuss the thickness of this "crust" and the time interval where it is…
Surface tension-driven flow techniques have recently emerged as an efficient means of shedding light into the rheology of thin polymer films. Motivated by experimental and theoretical approaches in films bearing a varying surface…
Catalyst particles or complexes suspended in liquid films can trigger chemical reactions leading to inhomogeneous concentrations of reactants and products in the film. We demonstrate that the sensitivity of the liquid film's gas-liquid…
Probing the fluid dynamics of thin films is an excellent tool to study the solid/liquid boundary condition. There is no need for external stimulation or pumping of the liquid due to the fact that the dewetting process, an internal…
A fluid in a pore can form diverse heterogeneous structures. We combine a capillary description with the cubic-plus-association equation of state to study the thermodynamic stability of droplets, bubbles and films of water at 358 K in a…
Glass transition behavior of nanoscopically thin polymer films is investigated by means of molecular dynamics simulations. A thin polymer film that is composed of bead-spring model chains and supported on an idealized, fcc lattice substrate…
The recent experimental fabrication of ultra stable glass films via vapour deposition [Science 315, 353 (2007)] and the observation of front-like response to the annealing of these films [Phys.Rev.Lett. 102, 065503 (2009)], have raised…
The effects of thermal coupling between two thin liquid layers, separated by a gas layer, are discussed. The liquid layers undergo long-wavelength instabilities driven by gravitational and thermocapillary stresses. To study the dynamics,…
Surfactant-laden thin liquid films overlaid on solid substrates are encountered in a variety of industrial and biological settings. As these films reach submicron thickness, they tend to become unstable owing to the influence of long-range…
Sphere-patterned ultrathin block copolymers films are potentially interesting for a variety of applications in nanotechnology. We use self-consistent field theory to investigate the elastic response of sphere monolayer films with respect to…
We perform molecular dynamics simulations of an idealized polymer melt surrounding a nanoscopic filler particle to probe the effects of a filler on the local melt structure and dynamics. We show that the glass transition temperature $T_g$…
The surface of a thin liquid film with nonconstant curvature is unstable, as the Laplace pressure drives a flow mediated by viscosity. We present the results of experiments on one of the simplest variable curvature surfaces: a stepped…
Nanoscale polymeric thin films are widely used in diverse applications such as energy devices, flexible electronics and biosensors, where a satisfactory mechanical performance is of vital importance to realize their full functionality. It…
Searching for the ideal glass transition, we exploit the ability of glassy polymer films to explore low energy states in remarkably short time scales. We use 30 nm thick polystyrene (PS) films, which in the supercooled state basically…
Phase equilibria between regions of different thickness in thin liquid films stabilized by colloidal particles are investigated using a quasi-two-dimensional thermodynamic formalism. Appropriate equilibrium conditions for the film tension,…
We examine nonequilibrium features of collapse behavior in model polymers with competing crystallization and glass transitions using extensive molecular dynamics simulations. By comparing to "colloidal" systems with no covalent bonds but…