Direct Molecular Evidence of the Origin of Slip of Polymer Melts on Grafted Brushes

Neutron reflectivity has been used to investigate the effect of shear on the conformation of hydrogenated polystyrene chains end-grafted on a silicon wafer and covered by a deuterated polystyrene melt, in the grafting regime where the grafted chains at equilibrium extend in the bulk up to their radius of gyration. An experimental setup has been built to shear the samples above their glass transition temperature and then quench them rapidly after the shear. The flow-induced distorted conformation of the end-tethered chains was characterized by neutron reflectivity. We show that the effect of the shear is a decoupling between the grafted chains and the bulk chains which leads to a strong slip of the polymer melt at the solid interface.