Molecular simulation of ultrathin polymeric films near the glass transition

Properties such as the glass transition temperature (T-g) and the diffusion coefficient of ultrathin polymeric films are shown to depend on the dimens ions of the system; In this work, a hard-sphere molecular dynamics methodol ogy has been applied to simulate such systems. We investigate the influence that substrates have on the behavior of thin polymer films; we report evid ence suggesting that, depending on the strength of substrate-polymer intera ctions, the glass transition temperature for a thin film can be significant ly lower or higher than that of the bulk.