Monitoring changes in the viscoelastic properties of thin polymer films by the quartz crystal resonator

This paper shows that a quartz crystal resonator is applicable to the investigation of rheological property changes of polymer blend and polymer films by the simultaneous measurement of resonant frequency and resonant resistance of the quartz crystal resonator. Phase transition phenomena of PMMA/PVAc blend films were studied in the thermal cycles, Viscoelastic property changes of PMMA homopolymers including a certain amount of plasticizer and the dependence of molecular size in blend film on phase transition temperature were also investigated, Both the resonant frequency and resonant resistance of film coated quartz crystals changed critically at the glass transition temperature. The responses of the resonant resistance showed more clear change than those of the resonant frequency because the resonant resistance directly reflects the information of energy dissipation in the coated films. The responses in the thermal cycle were represented as diagrams of the resonant frequency versus the resonant resistance and dR/dF versus temperature for detailed explanations. These diagrams showed clear glass transition temperatures of the films in the thermal cycles. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.