Analysis of microbuckling for monomolecular layers adhering to a substrate

A two-dimensional linear spring model is established to study the microbuckling of a plane monomolecular layer adhering to a substrate. The model is for the layer subjected to a compressive load having an arbitrary angle with the chemical bond of the layer. The effects of the load angle, the strength of adhesion and the bending stiffness and shearing stiffness (the capability of resisting transverse bending and in-plane shearing) of the layer on the minimal buckling force and the critical buckling mode are discussed. It is found that the minimal buckling force increases with increasing load angle and, for a given bending stiffness, increases with increasing strength of adhesion and decreasing shearing stiffness. Furthermore, a critical condition under which the buckling of the layer can just occur is obtained, which is helpful to avoid buckling in an engineering application. The project supported by the National Distinguished Young Scientist Fund, Cheung Kong Scholars Programme, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10272082, 10172068) and Shanghai Postdoctoral Science Foundation