Proceedings

EPJ E Colloquium - Glassy dynamics and irreversible adsorption in thin films of soft matter

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Thin films of liquids and polymers are interesting systems for those seeking to test glass transition theories and their prediction of a characteristic transition length scale of a few nanometers. The anomalous phenomena observed in some of these nano-confined films has greatly advanced our understanding of theoretical and experimental soft matter physics.

These films are treated as equilibrium systems where surfaces and interfaces introduce monotonous long-range mobility gradients. Considering finite size and interfacial effects provides an intuitive but oversimplifies picture that falls short of explaining many phenomena, such as enhancement of segmental mobility near an absorbing surface or long-lasting metastable states in the liquid.

The authors propose a new picture of the dynamics of these confined soft matter systems, which focuses on non-equilibrium states and on the impact of irreversible chain adsorption on the structural relaxation.

This EPJ E Colloquium reviews the experimental approaches that have been used to study the structural relaxation of films with one, two or no free surfaces by means of dielectric spectroscopy. Then proposes methods to determine gradients of mobility in thin films and discussed the as-yet untapped potential of analyses based on the time, temperature and thickness dependence of the orientational polarization.

Glassy dynamics of soft matter under 1D confinement: How irreversible adsorption affects molecular packing, mobility gradients and orientational polarization in thin films. Simone Napolitano, Simona Capponi, and Bram Vanroy (2013), European Physical Journal E 36: 61, DOI 10.1140/epje/i2013-13061-8

This was our first experience of publishing with EPJ Web of Conferences. We contacted the publisher in the middle of September, just one month prior to the Conference, but everything went through smoothly. We have had published MNPS Proceedings with different publishers in the past, and would like to tell that the EPJ Web of Conferences team was probably the best, very quick, helpful and interactive. Typically, we were getting responses from EPJ Web of Conferences team within less than an hour and have had help at every production stage.
We are very thankful to Solange Guenot, Web of Conferences Publishing Editor, and Isabelle Houlbert, Web of Conferences Production Editor, for their support. These ladies are top-level professionals, who made a great contribution to the success of this issue. We are fully satisfied with the publication of the Conference Proceedings and are looking forward to further cooperation. The publication was very fast, easy and of high quality. My colleagues and I strongly recommend EPJ Web of Conferences to anyone, who is interested in quick high-quality publication of conference proceedings.

On behalf of the Organizing and Program Committees and Editorial Team of MNPS-2019, Dr. Alexey B. Nadykto, Moscow State Technological University “STANKIN”, Moscow, Russia. EPJ Web of Conferences vol. 224 (2019)

ISSN: 2100-014X (Electronic Edition)

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