Tribological properties of adsorbed PEO nanolayers on planar solids*

We report tribological properties of irreversibly adsorbed poly(ethylene-oxide) (PEO) nanolayers onto planar Si substrates. The adsorbed nanolayers ($\sim$ 3 nm in thickness) were derived from spin-cast polymer thin films ($\sim$ 50 nm in thickness) via thermal annealing and subsequent solvent leaching with water. We characterized the formation process of the adsorbed nanolayers and the detailed surface/film structures by using x-ray reflectivity, grazing incidence x-ray diffraction, and atomic force microscopy. In addition, the contact angle and adhesive property of the adsorbed layers were characterized. We will discuss the structure-property relationship of the adsorbed nanolayers.