Interfacial thermal conductance in spun-cast polymer films and polymer brushes

Interfaces between inorganic materials and anharmonic polymers have potentially intriguing thermal transport behavior. The low thermal conductivity of amorphous polymers limits significant interfacial effects to polymer film thicknesses of only a few nanometers. We use time-domain thermoreflectance to directly measure interfacial effects in the thermal conductance of spun-cast poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) thin films and PMMA brushes “grafted-from” the substrate. PMMA brushes are expected to have polymer chains partially aligned perpendicular to the substrate, yet only a modest increase (13%) in thermal conductivity is observed over spun-cast layers.