Effects of Molecular Conformations and Functional Endgroups on Nanoscale Mobility of Lubricant Molecules on Magnetic Disks

Coarse-grained molecular simulations were applied to polymer lubricant films on magnetic disks for the analysis of head-disk interface (HDI) of hard disk drives (HDDs). Effects of conformation and functional endgroups of the lubricant molecule on the mobility of the lubricant film were observed with the application of molecular viewer which has been developed in this research. It was found that the molecule could not be simplified to a single sphere but should be modeled as a chain of beads connected via springs because the entanglements of the molecules prevented the spreading of the polymer film. Moreover, it was found that the functional endgroups became into clusters