Surface adhesion and its dependence on surface roughness and humidity measured with a flat AFM tip

Colak, A. and Wormeester, H. and Zandvliet, H.J.W. and Poelsema, B. (2012) Surface adhesion and its dependence on surface roughness and humidity measured with a flat AFM tip. Applied surface science, 258 (18). 6938 - 6942. ISSN 0169-4332

PDF
Restricted to UT campus only: Request a copy
739Kb

Abstract:	The adhesion force between a surface and the tip of an atomic force microscope cantilever has been determined by recording force–distance curves with an atomic force microscope. Flat tips with a diameter of 2 μm were used to mimic the adhesion between two parallel surfaces. In such a configuration, the location for the formation and breaking of the capillary water neck is a stochastic by nature, significantly different from that of a spherical tip. The adhesion force is measured as a function of relative humidity for smooth and chemically etched Si(1 0 0) surfaces. The roughness of the etched substrate reduces the adhesion by more than an order of magnitude, depending on the exact value of the relative humidity. The adhesion force increases with increasing humidity until a relative humidity of about 70%. Beyond a relative humidity of 70% a decrease of the adhesion force is observed. We anticipate that the latter is due to a decrease of the cross section of the water neck at the snap off point with increasing relative humidity
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© Elsevier
Faculty:	Science and Technology (TNW)
Research Group:	Physics of Interfaces and Nanomaterials (PIN)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/81101
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2012.03.138
Export this item as:	BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager

Show download statistics for this publication

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Metis ID: 287281