Adhesive Contact Deformation of a Single Microelastomeric Sphere

This paper reports on an experimental study of the adhesive contact of a single microscopic (about 300 μm) elastomer sphere compressed between two smooth parallel glass platens at small imposed deformations. An experimental arrangement that allows the simultaneous measurement of the compressive displacements and the reaction forces is described. A number of interesting phenomena, including the pull-off separation and the “jump” contact phenomena of the microsphere and the moving platen supported by a cantilever, are shown in the experimental force-displacement curve of a loading and unloading cycle. The pull-off forces are demonstrated to not depend upon the applied dimensionless approach (compressive displacement/initial particle diameter), while they increase with the increasing rate at which the interfaces are separated. The predictions of an established contact mechanical adhesive theory, Johnson–Kendall–Roberts (JKR) theory, in which the influence of the surface energy on the contact has been taken into account, are in good agreement with these experimental results. An application of the JKR analysis to the pull-off force provides a reasonable estimate of the interfacial free energy of the contact.