Langmuir, Vol.19, No.19, 7933-7940, 2003
Nanorheological properties of the perfluoropolyether meniscus bridge in the separation range of 10-1000 nm
In the present study, the nanorheological properties of a perfluoropolyether (PFPE) meniscus bridge, which is formed between two 20-mum-diameter glass spheres, have been investigated using a nanorheometer developed recently. The PFPE meniscus-bridge system is dominated by an elastic force at low frequencies and by a viscous force at high frequencies, and this behavior can be explained by the Voigt arrangement. The elastic force is predominant at a large separation. At high frequencies and small separations, the behavior of the PFPE meniscus bridge approaches that of the bulk polymer liquid in the "terminal zone", whereas the PFPE film shows excess stiffness and damping at low frequencies and large separations originating from the meniscus bridge. The storage and loss moduli of the meniscus-bridge system are quantitatively modified from the bulk values in terms of the frequency and the separation. The retardation time can be used as a measure of the dynamic property of the liquid meniscus bridge.