Glass Transition Accelerates the Spreading of Polar Solvents on a Soluble Polymer

Julien Dupas, Emilie Verneuil, Maxime Van Landeghem, Bruno Bresson, Laurent Forny, Marco Ramaioli, Francois Lequeux, and Laurence Talini
Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 188302 – Published 6 May 2014
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Abstract

We study the wetting of polymer layers by polar solvents. As previously observed, when a droplet of solvent spreads, both its contact angle and velocity decrease with time as a result of solvent transfers from the droplet to the substrate. We show that, when the polymer is initially glassy, the angle decreases steeply for a given value of the velocity, Ug. We demonstrate that those variations result from a plasticization, i.e., a glass transition, undergone by the polymer layer during spreading, owing to the increase of its solvent content. By analyzing previous predictions on the wetting of rigid and soft viscoelastic substrates, we relate Ug to the viscosity of the polymer gel close to the glass transition. Finally, we derive an analytical prediction for Ug based on existing predictions for the water transfer from the droplet to the substrate. Using polar solvents of different natures, we show that the experimental data compare well to the predicted expression for Ug.

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  • Received 24 February 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.188302

© 2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Julien Dupas1, Emilie Verneuil1, Maxime Van Landeghem1, Bruno Bresson1, Laurent Forny2, Marco Ramaioli2, Francois Lequeux1, and Laurence Talini1,*

  • 1CNRS/UPMC/ESPCI ParisTech-PSL Research University, UMR 7615, Laboratoire SIMM, 10 Rue Vauquelin, 75231 Paris, France
  • 2Nestle Research Center, Route du Jorat 57, 1000 Lausanne 26, Switzerland

  • *Corresponding author. laurence.talini@espci.fr

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Issue

Vol. 112, Iss. 18 — 9 May 2014

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