Thermal and Thermomechanical Investigation of Polymeric Thin Films on Substrate

Polystyrene (PS) thin films spin coated on either silicon or quartz substrates were prepared to investigate the thin film's thickness effects on both the heat transport and glass phase transition temperature of the PS. This characterisation has been achieved through a scanning thermal microscope setup (SThM) using doped silicon thermoresistive nanoprobe. Thermal conductance and thermomechanical analyses were performed. Our first results show that thermomechanical analysis measurement on ultrathin films on a substrate depends on the substrate thermal properties and confirm that the PS phase transition temperature is dependent on the interactions between PS ultrathin films and their respective substrates.