Webinar
Structure and dynamical heterogeneity in soft matter glasses/gels
Speaker: Nafisa Begam (University of Tuebingen, Germany)
Alteration of dynamical properties of a polymer film due to confinement effect has attracted tremendous attention of the scientific community as it is one of the centrals for their technological applications. There has been a large number of studies to realize the change in interfacial dynamics because of confinement, which results in a significant deviation in molecular mobility in the polymer film as quantified by the glass transition temperature (Tg). Evolution of viscosity or relaxation rate near Tg in such glass forming liquids has been interpreted in the framework of cooperatively rearranging region (CRR). A common hypothesis describes that the interfacial dynamics propagates into a polymer film via CRR. However, an experimental evidence of the interfacial dynamics is not yet obtained. Here, I will talk about the possibility to experimentally determine the interfacial dynamic length-scale and the dynamical heterogeneity related to CRR. We intend to obtain a relation between interfacial dynamic length-scale and CRR in a polymer film which have been a long-standing challenge due to various experimental constraints. Dynamics and several other crucial properties of these films are determined by the films structure and morphology which are highly dictated by the structural evolution during formation of the film. I will discuss about tracking the structural kinetics during film formation and investigating the viscoelastic properties of a bio-degradable polymer film. Further, I will discuss briefly about the possibility to investigate such polymer melt film embedded with active particles aiming at determining the effect of hydrodynamic interactions on the particle dynamics.