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Capillary Forces Studied with Atomic Force Microscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Sahar Maghsoudy-Louyeh  and
Bernhard R. Tittmann
Sahar Maghsoudy-Louyeh
Affiliation:
[email protected], The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, 212 Earth & Engineering Sciences Building, University Park, PA, 16802, United States, 814-865-3626
Bernhard R. Tittmann
Affiliation:
[email protected], The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, 212 Earth & Engineering Sciences Building, University Park, PA, 16802, United States
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Abstract

The deposition of films and coatings is sometimes influenced by the presence of small amounts of moisture, which can affect the nucleation and growth processes. It is important to understand the behavior of coating materials–especially in semiconductors–in terms of hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity along with adhesion forces. Our technical approach centers on the use of the atomic force microscope (AFM) which was found to be a reliable tool for studying the surface characteristics of materials. In addition to obtaining topographic information, the AFM can also probe attractive or repulsive forces between the tip and the sample surfaces. In this research, a systematic study of the influence of humidity on the adhesion forces between different AFM tips (silicon and silicon nitride) and both hydrophilic and hydrophobic materials (quartz, calcite, mica, graphite) has been conducted using atomic force microscopy. Several force-distance curves measured by the M5 AFM have been gathered at a series of different humidity levels and different locations on the samples. In this paper, measurements of the adhesion force for hydrophobic and hydrophilic materials versus humidity are presented. The results show that the adhesion force on graphite which has hydrophobic character is independent of humidity variation. Results also show that the adhesion force for fused quartz, mica, and calcite which are hydrophilic materials, change dramatically with increasing humidity due to capillary forces. This is in good agreement with theoretical calculations.

Keywords

adhesionfilmsurface chemistry
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1025: Symposium B – Nanoscale Phenomena in Functional Materials by Scanning Probe Microscopy , 2007 , 1025-B12-07
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

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