James Forrest

Professor
Director, GWPI

Office: PHY 360
Phone: (519) 888-4567 ext. 32161
Email: jforrest@uwaterloo.ca
Website: www.polymer-physics.uwaterloo.ca/

Research interests

• Physics of soft materials
• Physics of polymer thin films
• Crystalline polymers
• Polymer interfaces and adhesion
• Confinement of polymer chains
• Glass transition in confined geometry

Present research activities

The experimental polymer physics group at Waterloo is concerned with the properties of polymeric materials with a particular emphasis on the properties of thin films of polymers or the properties of polymers at surfaces or interfaces. Such problems are of tremendous fundamental and practical importance. In a fundamental sense the presence of real interfaces introduces a perturbation which can only be approximated in theory. In addition when the confinement is smaller than the size of the polymer molecule, the physical properties may be further affected. The properties which may be affected will have an impact on the applications of polymer thin films ranging from adhesion and lubrication to electrical conductivity.

The experimental polymer physics groups uses a variety of techniques. Besides being an essential tool for measuring film thickness, ellipsometry is used to measure glass transitions of relatively complicated structures, and is also used for quantification of sample structure for instance in the case of multilayer films. We have made, and are continuing to make, pioneeering efforts on the use of the quartz crystal microbalance to study ultrathin films as well as to study adhesion to the polymer surface. Optical microscopy is used for morphological studies as well as kinetics. We are also developing capacitance spectroscopy to measure relaxation in very thin polymer films. Through collaborations we make use of light scattering, neutron and x-ray reflectivity, and atomic force microscopy.

Recent publications

• First inelastic neutron scattering studies on thin free standing polymer films,
  B. Frick, K. Dalnoki-Veress, J. A. Forrest, J. Dutcher, C. Murray, A. Higgins, Eur. Phys. J. E. 12 s01 (2003) 022
• Thickness dependence of the dynamics in thin films of isotactic poly(methylmethacrylate),
  J.S.Sharp and J.A. Forrest, Eur. Phys. J.E. s01 (2003) 023
• Dielectric and ellipsometric studies of the dynamics in thin films of isotactic poly(methylmethacrylate) with one free surface,
  J.S. Sharp and J.A. Forrest, Phys. Rev. E 67, 031805 (2003)
• Dielectric relaxations in ultra-thin films of PMMA: Assessing the length scale of cooperativity in the dynamic glass transition,
  M. Wubbenhorst, C.A. Murray, J.A. Forrest, and J.R. Dutcher, Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Electrets, Melbourne, Australia (2002)
• A decade of dynamics in thin films of polystyrene: Where are we now?,
  J.A. Forrest, Eur. Pys. J.E, 8, 261-266 (2002)
• The Glass Transition in Thin Polymer Films,
  J.A. Forrest and K. Dalnoki-Veress, Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, Vol 94/1-3, pp 167-195 (2001)
• Molecular Weight Dependence of the Glass Transition Temperature in Thin Freely-Standing Polystyrene Films,
• K. Dalnoki-Veress, J.A. Forrest, C. Murray, C. Gigault, J.R. Dutcher, Phys. Rev. E 63, 031801 (2001)
• Reductions of the Glass Transition Temperature in Thin Polymer Films: Probing the Length Scale of Cooperative Dynamics,
  J.A. Forrest and J. Mattsson, Phys. Rev. E. 61, R53 (2000)
• The Glass Transition and Relaxation of Polymer Films and Surfaces,
  J.A. Forrest and R.A.L. Jones, Polymer Surfaces Interfaces and Thin Films, edited by A. Karim and S. Kumar, World Scientific, Singapore (2000)
• Using Polymer Films to Probe Finite Size Effects in Glass Forming materials,
  J.A. Forrest and J. Mattsson, Journal de Physique 10, Pr7-251 (2000)
• Quantifying the Glass Transition in Ultrathin Freely Standing Polymer Films,
  J. Mattsson , J.A. Forrest, L Borjesson, Phys. Rev. E 62, 5187-5200 (2000)v
• Glass Transition Reductions in Thin Freely-standing Polymer Films: a Scaling Analysis of Chain Confinement Effects,
  K. Dalnoki-Veress, J.A. Forrest, P.G. de Gennes, J.R. Dutcher, J. Phys. 10, Pr7-221 - Pr7-226 (2000)