Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.117, No.8, 3972-3977, 2002
Molecular simulation of thin polymer films with functional endgroups
An off-lattice Monte Carlo simulation using a coarse-grained bead-spring model was developed to analyze nanoconfined polymer films. The beads in the polymer chains are connected via finitely extensible, nonlinear elastic springs. In addition to nonpolar van der Waals interactions, functional endbeads have a short-range exponential interaction characteristic of endgroup coupling. Our simulated results qualitatively agree with experimental data for perfluoropolyether molecules with functional endgroups in ultrathin films. The chains exhibit an oblate conformation near the wall, but recover a spherical shape as they move farther away from it. The density profile of functional endbeads as a function of distance from the wall shows characteristic oscillation originating from endbead coupling and orientation near the wall. We examined the molecular layering of films via the analysis of an anisotropic radius of gyration for the chains, which is affected by the endgroup interactions.