Chain length effects on confined polymer/polymer interfaces

We explored how the effect of confinement on interfacial fluctuations at the polymer/polymer interface depends on the chain lengths of the macromolecules. Polymer bilayers of polyolefins of various degrees of polymerisation and conditions of miscibility were investigated by performing neutron reflectivity experiments. Our results show that the molecular weight has an important role in influencing the dependence of the interfacial width on film thickness at higher values of the interaction parameter, while for more miscible polymer pairs, and thus broader interfaces, the effect of confinement is not strongly dependent on the chain length.