Professor John Pethica, CRANN & School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Polymer Mechanics at the Nanoscale

This talk will describe the unusual mechanical properties of polymers once they occupy very small volumes. This is of most practical significance for thin films, which have a very wide range of applications in lithography, protection and coating. Flat punch indentation testing gives very good quatitative characterisation; standard effects of molecular weight, strain rates and temperature will be shown, as well as significant changes as dimensions approach the molecular. A hitherto unobserved plastic densification mechanism will be shown. Some simple scaling arguments show why it is almost impossible to make such measurement at the macro scale.

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Host: Professor Flemming Besenbacher, Interdisciplinanry Nanoscience Center, Aarhus University