Architecture Effect on Conformational Relaxation of Polymer Chains at an Interface

Conformational relaxation of polymer chains trapped in a metastable state in close proximity to a solid interface can strongly affect the physical properties of polymer nanocomposites. We here show an effect of thermal annealing on the chain conformation of polystyrene (PS) with different architecture near at the solid interface using sum-frequency generation spectroscopy. Relaxation dynamics of PS chains strongly adsorbed on the substrate surface is discussed. PS chains exhibited much slower relaxation dynamics with a star-shaped architecture than with a linear one. This finding is in accordance with a scenario that the entropic interaction with the solid surface is stronger for a star-shaped macromolecule than for a linear one.