Publications
Use of self assembled monolayers at variable coverage to control interface bonding in a model study of interfacial fracture: Pure shear loading
The relationships between fundamental interfacial interactions, energy dissipation mechanisms, and fracture stress or fracture toughness in a glassy thermoset/inorganic solid joint are not well understood. This subject is addressed with a model system involving an epoxy adhesive on a polished silicon wafer containing its native oxide. The proportions of physical and chemical interactions at the interface, and the in-plane distribution, are varied using self-assembling monolayers of octadecyltrichlorosilane (ODTS). The epoxy interacts strongly with the bare silicon oxide surface, but forms only a very weak interface with the methylated tails of the ODTS monolayer. The fracture stress is examined as a function of ODTS coverage in the napkin-ring (pure shear) loading geometry. The relationship between fracture stress and ODTS coverage is catastrophic, with a large change in fracture stress occurring over a narrow range of ODTS coverage. This transition in fracture stress does not correspond to a wetting transition of the epoxy. Rather, the transition in fracture stress corresponds to the onset of deformation in the epoxy, or the transition from brittle to ductile fracture. The authors postulate that the transition in fracture stress occurs when the local stress that the interface can support becomes comparable to the yield stress of the epoxy. The fracture results are independent of whether the ODTS deposition occurs by island growth (T{sub dep} = 10 C) or by homogeneous growth (T{sub dep} = 24 C).