Thermoelastic behaviour of polyvinylacetate monolayers at the air-water interface: Evidences for liquid-solid phase transition

The thermoelastic behaviour of polyvinylacetate monolayers spread on an aqu eous subphase has been studied using rheological data previously published (Monroy et al., Phys. Rev. E 58, 7629 (1998)). The results show fluid-like viscoelastic behaviour well above a transition temperature T-m, while at lo wer temperatures a soft solid-like behaviour emerges. The correlation betwe en thermodynamic and elastic properties below T-m can be described in terms of scaling laws.