Simple physical model for chemomechanics

We present a simple model linking chemical interactions with macroscopic mechanical deformations for polymer‐coated microcantilever devices. The chemo‐mechanical process is treated in terms of Fickian diffusion followed by a structural relaxation of the polymer‐guest complex. The model is tested on a series of microcantilever bending experiments, in the presence of different isotopologues, and at different incident guest fluxes. In many cases, a nontrivial behavior, expressed by the appearance of an overshoot, is observed. The new model provides insight into the ways chemical interactions and reorganization processes manifest themselves in mechanical processes. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys., 2013