Nanorheology

G. Gillies, C.A. Prestidge, and P. Attard An AEM Study of the Deformation and Nanorheology of Cross-Linked PDMS Droplets. Langmuir 18, 1674 (2002). 

Cai LL (1997) Nanorheology of Polymer Brushes, Ph D Thesis, University of Illinois... 

Above results clearly demonstrate that dewetting can be considered as a nanorheology experiment that gives insight into the structure and properties of out-of-equiUbrium PS thin films. We may thus consider dewetting as a rheological probe for the study of the visco-elastic properties of nanoscopic polymer films. 

In this section we describe our recent progress in nanomechanical analysis to make it applicable to conditions where we cannot ignore the adhesive and viscoelastic effects, and where JKR contact plays an important role, as explained in Section 3.3. Then we discuss the realistic applicable limit of this theory based on several experimental results. Furthermore, the viscoelastic effect is treated experimentally and theoretically to some extent, with the future goal of making nanomechanical mapping a nanorheological mapping technique. 

Nagai, S., Fujinami, S., Nakajima, K., and Nishi, T., Nanorheological investigation of polymeric surfaces by atomic force microscopy. Compos. Interface, 16,13-25 (2009). 

Sakai, Y., Ikehara, T., Nishi, T., Nakajima, K., and Kara, M., Nanorheology measurement on a single polymer chain, Appl. Phys. Lett., 81,11A-I2f> (2002). 

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