Interfacial adhesion at the molecular level

Interfacial adhesion is of extraordinary technological importance and has long been of intense scientific interest. However, the study of the adhesive bond and its failure is made difficult by the complexity of the interfacial interaction and the problems involved with establishing carefully characterized and controlled interfacial surfaces and that of quantitatively evaluating the bonding after its formation. In the present work, we outline the results of studies using Interfacial Force Microscopy (IFM) to study the adhesive bond formation and failure between (1) differing end-group combinations on self-assembling monolayer (SAM) films covering Au surfaces and (2) between clean surfaces of a W probe and a Au single-crystal sample. The IFM is a scanning probe technique distinguished by its use of a mechanically stable, zero-compliance force sensor. This sensor permits the study of the interfacial force as a function of separation without the mechanical instability giving rise to the {open_quotes}jump-to-contact{close_quotes} seen in all presently used displacement-based sensors, such as the surface forces apparatus and the atomic force microscope. Thus, information can be obtained concerning the details of the adhesive bond formation and failure over the entire range of the interfacial interaction. We demonstrate that such measurements yield valuable quantitative information concerning the individual bond strengths between chemically distinct SAM end groups and show that the clean metal-surface interaction is dominated by surface roughness and plastic deformation