Air shear driven flow of thin perfluoropolyether polymer films

Abstract

Air shear driven flow of thin perfluoropolyether (PEPE) polymer films on silicon wafers and CNx overcoats was studied using the blow-off technique. It was found that the movement of PEPE films could be described as a flow process with an effective viscosity, even when the film thickness was smaller than the polymer's diameter of gyration. The addition of alcohol end groups to the PEPE polymer chain resulted in strong interactions with Si and CNx substrates and introduced structure into the films.