2018 5th Global Conference on Polymer and Composite Materials (PCM 2018)
Biography: Prof. Werner Steffen is group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer research in Mainz, Germany. He is in the department "Physics at interfaces" and leads a research group working on structure and dynamic of bulk and thin films of polymers. His recent activities involve the interplay between solid-liquid interfaces as well as liquid-gas interfaces of polymers as the liquid phase in thin films. His work revolves around the development of new experimental techniques and questions from polymer physics of polymers in these films. Experience is in the liquid-glass transition of organic materials and in the development of X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy as well as novel light scattering methods to elucidate the dynamics close to solid interfaces in a range of the order of 100 nm from the interface without fluorescent markers.
He participated and/or was/is the coordinator of a number of funded researches. He is current referee of more than 20 ISI-classified journals. He is co-author of more than 90 papers published in international peer reviewed journals with close to 2400 citations (h-index 29).
Speech Title: Influence of substrate on static and dynamic properties of thin polymeric films
Aims: The nature of a substrate influences the local structure and dynamics of thin polymeric films. We developed experimental techniques to follow these changes at interfaces
Methods: In Resonance Enhanced Dynamic Light Scattering, we utilize surface plasmon polaritons as incident electromagnetic field in order to measure relaxation functions with laser power of less than a milliwatt at a predetermined penetration depth. Alternatively, we use Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) to monitor the dynamics of thin films
Results: Depending on the substrate, more or less pronounced layers of reduced dynamics and enhanced viscosity are detected. A three-layer model to describe the behavior is necessary
