Metal Nanoparticles on Polymer Surfaces: 1. A New Method of Determining Glass Transition Temperature of the Surface Layer

New experimental approach allowing to study the structure and properties of polymer surface layers at a nanolevel is proposed. According to this method, metal nanoparticles are first adsorbed on a polymer surface from colloidal solution, then resultant system is stepwise annealed, and the particle embedding in a polymer is examined with atomic force microscope. Potentialities of the method are demonstrated using the gold nanoparticles–polystyrene system (including polystyrene modified with the UV radiation) as an example. It was established that the glass transition temperature of polystyrene surface layer is noticeably lower compared with the bulk value and decreases even more after the UV modification of a polymer surface. Possible use of the results obtained for the solution of other, independent problem, namely for the creation of two-dimensional nanocomposites by embedding nanoparticle monolayer ensemble in the surface layer of a glassy polymer at a temperature lower than the glass transition temperature of its bulk is analyzed.