INVESTIGATION OF DEFORMATION AND FRACTURE MECHANISMS OF POLYMER/POLYMER AND POLYMER/GLASS INTERFACES BY ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY

摘要

The Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is widely used for the study of surfaces or low thickness layers and very few works deal with the investigation of interfaces by AFM in multimaterials. This paper gives two examples of polymer/polymer and polymer/glass interfaces performed in the laboratory and related to the determination of interfacial adhesion in bilayers systems (asymetric double cantilever beam specimens) to illustrate the capability to bring new and important insights into the problem of adhesion mechanisms and mechanics. The AFM allows : ⅰ) analysis of morphologies formed for bilayers joints, ⅱ) in-situ investigation of deformation and fracture mechanisms and, ⅲ) determination of the failure locus. The AFM observations are also compared to those obtained by conventional microscopies such as TEM and SEM.