Experimental investigation of the glass transition of polystyrene thin films in a broad frequency range

Inoue, Rintaro*; Kanaya, Toshiji*; Yamada, Takeshi*; Shibata, Kaoru  ; Fukao, Koji*

In this study, we investigate the process of a polystyrene thin film using inelastic neutron scattering (INS), dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS), and thermal expansion spectroscopy (TES). The DRS and TES measurements exhibited a decrease in glass transition temperature () with film thickness. On the other hand, an increase in was observed in INS studies. In order to interpret this contradiction, we investigated the temperature dependence of the peak frequency () of the process probed by DRS and TES. The experiments revealed an increase in the peak frequency () with decreasing film thickness in the frequency region. This observation is consistent with the observed decrease in with thickness. The discrepancy between INS and DRS or TES descriptions of the process is likely to be attributed to a decrease in the apparent activation energy with film thickness and reduced mobility, due to the impenetrable wall effect.