Effects of dispersion forces in the instability of polymer films

Spontaneous rupture of some polymer films upon heating is commonplace. The very criterion for this instability is the system free energy possessing a negative curvature. Within the framework of full frequency-dependent theory of dispersion forces, we have derived the excess free energy of a typical system—polystyrene film deposited on the silicon substrate. The excess free energy, wavelengths and growth rates are calculate and a comparison is made between the accurate results and the approximate results. It is found that the stability of the film can be tuned by the variation of the thickness of the coating and the retardation effects can be significant sometimes.