Dynamics Involved in Thin Films During the Preparation Process
Saarland Univeristy, Saarbrücken

Ludovic Marquant is a PhD student in the POLYFILM Network working in the group of Soft Condensed Matter.This group is part of the experimental physics department at Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany.

His education in Polymer Chemistry, with a smidgeon of Biology, has allowed him to receive a MSc degree at the department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry, Lille, France. He was working on the separation of enantiomers using liquid membranes. He has now chosen to work on the physico-chemical area within the POLYFILM Network.

Current project

It is known for more than a decade that a thin fluid polymer film can withdraw under certain conditions on a substrate. The film stability on a substrate varies with the effective interface potential of that wafer. The film typically is prepared by a spin-coating process. The main interest is to understand the dynamics of the polymer flow at different steps by using microscopic techniques (optical and scanning force). And more specially study the conformational behaviour of the polymer chains during the preparation procedure and its influence on the thin polymer film.