Elastic modulus,surface tension,adhesion, and ideal and real strengths of solids

Formulas for the surface tension coefficient, adhesion energy, elastic modulus, and strength of solids versus the atomic density have been derived. The theoretical values of these parameters have been confirmed by experimental data gathered from many metals, insulators, and semiconductors.     

Contact mechanics analysis of oscillatory sliding of a rigid fractal surface against an elastic–plastic half-space

Oscillatory sliding contact between a rigid rough surface and an elastic–plastic half-space is examined in the context of numerical simulations. Stick-slip at asperity contacts is included in the analysis in the form of a modified Mindlin theory. Two friction force components are considered – adhesion (depending on the real area of contact, shear strength and interfacial adhesive strength) and plowing (accounting for the deformation resistance of the plastically deformed half-space). Multi-scale surface roughness is described by fractal geometry, whereas the interfacial adhesive strength is represented by a floating parameter that varies between zero (adhesionless surfaces) and one (perfectly adhered surfaces). The effects of surface roughness, apparent contact pressure, oscillation amplitude, elastic–plastic properties of the half-space and interfacial adhesion on contact deformation are interpreted in the light of numerical results of the energy dissipation, maximum tangential (friction) force and slip index. A non-monotonic trend of the energy dissipation and maximum tangential force is observed with increasing surface roughness, which is explained in terms of the evolution of the elastic and plastic fractions of truncated asperity contact areas. The decrease of energy dissipation with increasing apparent contact pressure is attributed to the increase of the elastic contact area fraction and the decrease of the slip index. For a half-space with fixed yield strength, a lower elastic modulus produces a higher tangential force, whereas a higher elastic modulus yields a higher slip index. These two competing effects lead to a non-monotonic dependence of the energy dissipation on the elastic modulus-to-yield strength ratio of the half-space. The effect of interfacial adhesion on the oscillatory contact behaviour is more pronounced for smoother surfaces because the majority of asperity contacts deform elastically and adhesion is the dominant friction mechanism. For rough surfaces, higher interfacial adhesion yields less energy dissipation because more asperity contacts exhibit partial slip.     

Predicting adhesive properties of liquid-metal materials for fusion reactor blankets

A technique for calculating the surface energy and adhesion energy of single-component and multicomponent structural materials is suggested. It is based on a second-order model for an elastic continuum that assumes pair potential interaction between particles. Calculated values for the surface energy of single-component and multicomponent materials and also for adhesion energy in multilayer systems that are promising for liquid-metal blankets of fusion reactors are given. The effect of the component-to-component ratio on adhesion properties in a multilayer structure is analyzed for V-nCr-mTi alloy, which is the basic material of the lithium-vanadium blanket.     

Photo-thermal-elastic interaction in an unbounded semiconducting medium with spherical cavity due to pulse heat flux

In this work, the photothermal waves in an unbounded semiconducting medium with spherical cavity are studied. This problem is solved using the theory of coupled plasma, thermal, and elastic wave. An unbounded material, elastic semiconductor containing a spherical cavity with isotropic and homogeneous thermal and elastic properties has been considered. The inner surface of the cavity is taken traction-free and subjected to an exponentially decaying pulse boundary heat flux. Laplace transform techniques and eigenvalue approach were used to obtain the analytical solutions. Numerical computations have been done for silicon-like semiconductor material, and the results are presented graphically to estimate the effect of time and the coupling between the plasma, thermal, and elastic waves.     

Optical multilayer post growth instabilities: Analyses of Gd2O3/SiO2 system in combination with scanning probe force spectroscopy

Post growth multilayer instabilities of a certain periodic Gd₂O₃/SiO₂ multilayer systems have been investigated using scanning probe force-distance spectroscopy and optical spectrophotometric techniques. In the present work, we have noticed a strong correlation between the force spectroscopic results and the spectral properties of multilayer thin films, although measurement techniques and operating principles are quite different. From the experimental analysis, it was quite evident that the instability process, which starts during the nucleation and growth stage in thin films, continues to persist at a much longer time scale under post growth conditions. During this study it has been noticed that the elastic properties of the constituent thin films, the layer geometry and the bilayer thickness have strong correlation in trickling the multilayer instabilities. Such aspects also have strong interconnections with the morphological and viscoelastic changes. It is also noticed that most of the instabilities results cannot only be explained through elastic nature of the material alone. Instead, total number of layers, the layer structures, morphological changes, corresponding stiffness and the adhesion properties of the multilayer contribute substantially to these phenomena.     

Contact angle hysteresis of liquid drops as means to measure adhesive energy of zein on solid substrates

Adhesion of zein to solid substrates has been studied using surface energy profiles as indices and by adhesion mapping using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Different plasticizers like glycerol and sorbitol have been used to form mixed films with zein and properties of these films are studied using surface energy profiles. Comparison of the results from the different mixed samples with those from the pure zein films showed that force mapping could identify areas rich in protein. The adhesion maps produced were deconvoluted from sample topography and contrasted with the data obtained from contact angle measurements. A comparison of the two methods shows that the extent of contact angle hysteresis is indicative of both hydrophobicity of the surface as well as the force of adhesion. Mechanical properties and microstructure of zein films prepared by casting from solutions and using Langmuir-Blodgett film technique have been investigated. Pure zein seemed brittle and exhibited an essentially linear relationship between stress and strain. Films with plasticizer were tougher than these films. In general, mixed films showed better mechanical properties than pure films and had higher ultimate tensile strength and increased per cent elongation. Further, the mixed films of zein showed a higher force of adhesion compared to the pure films.     

Regulation of the elastic modulus of polyurethane microarrays and its influence on gecko-inspired dry adhesion

We studied the influence of the elastic modulus on the gecko-inspired dry adhesion by regulating the elastic modulus of bulk polyurethane combined with changing the size of microarrays. Segmented polyurethane (PU) was utilized to fabricate micro arrays by the porous polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) membrane molding method. The properties of the micro arrays, such as the elastic modulus and adhesion, were investigated by Triboindenter. The study demonstrates that bulk surfaces show the highest elastic modulus, with similar values at around 175 MPa and decreasing the arrays radius causes a significant decrease in E, down to 0.62 MPa. The corresponding adhesion experiments show that decrease of the elastic modulus can enhance the adhesion which is consistent with the recent theoretical models.     

Modification of surface properties of polypropylene (PP) film using DC glow discharge air plasma

The industrial use of polypropylene (PP) films is limited because of undesirable properties such as poor adhesion and printability. In the present study, a DC glow discharge plasma has been used to improve the surface properties of PP films and make it useful for technical applications. The change in hydrophilicity of modified PP film surface was investigated by contact angle (CA) and surface energy measurements as a function of exposure time. In addition, plasma-treated PP films have been subjected to an ageing process to determine the durability of the plasma treatment. Changes in morphological and chemical composition of PP films were analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The improvement in adhesion was studied by measuring T-peel and lap shear strength. The results show that the surface hydrophilicity has been improved due to the increase in the roughness and the introduction of oxygen-containing polar groups. The AFM observation on PP film shows that the roughness of the surface increased due to plasma treatment. Analysis of chemical binding states and surface chemical composition by XPS showed an increase in the formation of polar functional groups and the concentration of oxygen content on the plasma-processed PP film surfaces. T-peel and lap shear test for adhesion strength measurement showed that the adhesion strength of the plasma-modified PP films increased compared with untreated films surface.     

Fractal and structural aspects of adhesion in particulate-filled polymer composites

Two types of composites based on poly(hydroxy ether) and graphite with various amounts of a filler have been investigated by various methods. The methods have been used to estimate the characteristics of adhesion and interfacial layer, including its thickness and tensile strength and interdependence between these values and adhesion. The results are treated on the basis of the theory of irreversible aggregation, cluster theory of the polymer structure and fractal analysis. It is established that all important characteristics of adhesion, interfacial layer and mechanical properties are interconnected with the difference between fractal dimensions of the surface of the aggregates of filler particles and of a polymer matrix, whose structure is distorted under the influence of the filler surface.     

Theories of surface elasticity for nanoscale objects

The emergence of nanotechnology has driven recent interest in systems having surface atoms as a significant fraction of all atoms present, in particular nano-sheets (ultra-thin slabs), nano-wires, and nano-particles. In these systems, the bulk (i.e. non-surface region or interior) is typically strained in response to the stress of the surface. This elastic strain of the bulk in turn changes the surface lattice constants. Since the bulk and the surface are coupled, the problem must be solved self-consistently. Solving this problem requires a quantitative model of the surface elastic properties which are different from the bulk. In this paper we consider various models that have been proposed for surface elasticity. Our goal is to elucidate the relationship between two contrasting approaches: (1) the Shuttleworth equation which defines a surface stress based on the strain derivative of the surface energy and (2) the Gurtin-Murdoch (GM) theory which considers the surface layer as a membrane with residual strain and with elastic constants different from the bulk. The GM theory is analogous to the 2-D Frenkel-Kontorova (FK) model and can be used to obtain quantitative parameters for the FK model. We present an embedded atom method calculation of the surface elastic constants of Cu(1 1 1) using the GM theory with the surface represented by a membrane one atomic layer thick. This quantitative approach describes the elastic properties of surfaces in a physically appealing way. Just as the bulk elastic constants provide direct information regarding the stress/strain relationship in a bulk material, the surface elastic constants provide similar information for a surface monolayer. This theory will allow elasticity analysis and atomistic calculations of properties of nano-scale objects.     

Elastic measurements of layered nanocomposite materials by Brillouin spectroscopy

Surface Brillouin spectroscopy makes it possible to measure surface elastic wave propagation parameters at frequencies up to 20 GHz or more. This enables us to measure the elastic properties of surface layers only a small fraction of a micrometre thick. The wavelength and incident angle of the light determine the wavenumber of surface elastic waves (SAW) that scatter the light inelastically, and their frequency can be found by measuring the change in wavelength of the scattered light. By analysing the elastic wave modes present in the surface, the elastic properties can be deduced. We have used this technique to measure the elastic properties of layered nanocomposite materials, which are widely used in the packaging industry. 12 microns polymer films (PET) were coated with glass oxide layers of thickness as little as 25 nm, to give transparent nanocomposite structures with excellent gas barrier properties. In order to understand and model the behaviour of these films under deformation, it is necessary to determine the elastic properties of the different layers. Evaluation of the elastic properties presents several challenges. First, the oxide layers are much thinner than the wavelengths of the surface phonons in surface Brillouin spectroscopy (and hence the depth probed), which usually lie in the range 250-500 nm. The anisotropic elastic properties of the PET substrate must therefore be measured accurately, and this can be done using bulk Brillouin spectroscopy. Second, a thin layer of metal (usually 10-20 nm) must be deposited on the glass surface so that the surface phonons scatter the light effectively. The elastic properties of the glass layer can then be deduced from surface Brillouin spectroscopy measurements, by simulating the surface wave modes of the metal/glass/polymer composite, and adjusting the parameters to give the best fit. In this way it is possible to observe how the properties of the glass vary as a function of thickness, and in turn to understand how to improve systematically the properties under deformation.     

Surface adhesion properties of graphene and graphene oxide studied by colloid-probe atomic force microscopy

Surface adhesion properties are important to various applications of graphene-based materials. Atomic force microscopy is powerful to study the adhesion properties of samples by measuring the forces on the colloidal sphere tip as it approaches and retracts from the surface. In this paper we have measured the adhesion force between the colloid probe and the surface of graphene (graphene oxide) nanosheet. The results revealed that the adhesion force on graphene and graphene oxide surface were 66.3 and 170.6 nN, respectively. It was found the adhesion force was mainly determined by the water meniscus, which was related to the surface contact angle of samples.     

Determination of elastic properties of Si/Ge superlattices and Si1-xGex films from surface acoustic modes by Brillouin scattering

Surface acoustic waves (SAW) have been measured by means of Brillouin scattering (BS) both as a function of k×h and the direction of k in the sample plane (k is the wavevector of the surface acoustic mode and h the thickness of the film). The velocity of the Rayleigh wave on sufficiently thick films (h > 4000 Å) has been experimentally found to ve uneffected by the elastic properties of the substrate material. Thus the directional dependence of the hypersonic surface wave is completely determined by the elastic properties of the layer material alone and reflects its crystallographic symmetry. The SL's can be treated as media with effective elastic constants because the wavelength of the thermally excited Rayleigh wave is much longer than the SL period. Furthermore, the angular dispersion of the SAW can be used to calculate the elastic constants of each film separately.     

Experimental investigation of the adhesive contact of an elastomer

The present work is an experimental study of adhesion between an elastomer and a rigid cylindrical indented The experimental characterization was carried out using a specially developed apparatus. Adhesive force was measured as function of contact geometry, pull-off velocity, normal force, temperature, waiting time, and material properties. Experimental results are compared with existing theoretical models for adhesion of elastic and viscoelastic bodies. Our study shows that the adhesive force between the studied elastomer and a steel cylinder is determined by completely different mechanisms than assumed in the Kendall’s theory. In particular, it does not depend on the surface energy and is almost entirely dominated by the viscosity of the elastomer.     

Lignocellulosic composites with grafted polystyrene interfaces

The effects of surface grafting of a polymer onto lignocellulosic fiber surface and processing methods on both the interfacial interactions and the resulting composite properties of the fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites were investigated. Chemithermomechanical pulp (CTMP) wood fiber was used as a reinforcement, which has been chemically modified by radical polymer grafting of styrene onto the fiber surfaces. The chemically modified CTMP fiber was then compounded with polystyrene (PS). Two different processing methods, both compression and injection moldings, were performed to prepare the wood-fiber-reinforced composites. Experimental results showed that surface modification of wood fiber leads to an obvious increase in mechanical properties of the fiber-reinforced composites as compared to the untreated fiber composites. The enhancement of mechanical properties is much greater through injection molding compared with compression molding owing to occurrence of orientation, and better mixing and interaction between the fiber and the matrix by injection molding. An improvement in fiber wetting properties and adhesion by the matrix was observed through scanning electron microscopy for the surface grafted fiber reinforced composites. Untreated wood fiber exhibited a smooth surface without adhered polymer, indicating poor adhesion, while polymer attached to the surface was seen on treated cellulose fiber due to the higher fiber-matrix interactions.     

Influence of surface roughness on adhesion between elastic bodies

We study the influence of surface roughness on the adhesion between elastic solids. We present experimental data for the force necessary to pull off rubber balls from hard rough substrates. We show that the effective adhesion (or the pull-off force) can be calculated accurately from the surface roughness power spectra obtained from the measured surface height profile.     

Evaluation of bacterial adhesion on Si-doped diamond-like carbon films

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films as biomaterial for medical devices have been attracting great interest due to their excellent properties such as hardness, low friction and chemical inertness. It has been demonstrated that the properties of DLC films can be further improved by the addition of silicon into DLC films, such as thermal stability, compressive stress, etc. However no research work on anti-bacterial properties of silicon-doped diamond-like carbon films has been reported. In this paper the surface physical and chemical properties of Si-doped diamond-like carbon films with various Si contents on 316 stainless steel substrate prepared by a magnetron sputtering technique were investigated, including surface topography, surface chemistry, the sp³/sp² ratio, contact angle, surface free energy, etc. Bacterial adhesion to Si-doped DLC films was evaluated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus which frequently cause medical device-associated infections. The experimental results showed that bacterial adhesion decreased with increasing the silicon content in the films. All the Si-doped DLC films performed much better than stainless steel 316L on reducing bacterial attachment.     

Adhesion between elastic bodies with randomly rough surfaces

I have developed a theory of adhesion between an elastic solid and a hard randomly rough substrate. The theory takes into account the fact that partial contact may occur between the solids on all length scales. I present numerical results for the case where the substrate surface is self-affine fractal. When the fractal dimension is close to 2, complete contact typically occurs in the macroasperity contact areas. For a fractal dimension larger than 2.5, the area of (apparent) contact decreases continuously when the magnification is increased.     

Contact Properties and Adhesion of Incompressible Power-Law Gradient Media with High Gradients

We discuss contact stiffness and adhesion of flat-ended cylindrical indenters with a graded material the elastic coefficient of which is a power-function of the depth with an exponent 1 < k < 3. So far, only graded materials with k < 1 have been considered in the literature as the stiffness of the medium becomes zero when k is approaching 1. However, it is known that the case of incompressible media is an exception. We argue that in this case the final stiffness can be defined up to values of k < 3. The interval 1 < k < 3, which has not been considered earlier occurs to be of special interest, since for k > 1 the adhesive properties of contacts change qualitatively from "brittle" to very tough even in the case of a purely elastic material.     

Wrapping an adhesive sphere with an elastic sheet

We study the adhesion of an elastic sheet on a rigid spherical substrate. Gauss's Theorema Egregium shows that this operation necessarily generates metric distortions (i.e., stretching) as well as bending. As a result, a large variety of contact patterns ranging from simple disks to complex branched shapes are observed as a function of both geometrical and material properties. We describe these different morphologies as a function of two nondimensional parameters comparing, respectively, bending and stretching energies to adhesion. A complete configuration diagram is finally proposed.