Measurement of polyamide and polystyrene adhesion with coated-tip atomic force microscopy

Nanoscale interaction mechanism between bubbles and microplastics under the influence of natural organic matter in simulated marine environment

Bubble-microplastic (MP) interaction is a significant process that changes the routes of MP circulation in marine environment and thereby determines the risk of MPs, which could be strongly influenced by natural organic matter (NOM) in oceans. However, the quantitative interaction mechanisms between bubbles and MPs under the effect of NOM remain elusive. Herein, bubble-MP interactions in simulated seawater were quantified at nanoscale based on atomic force microscope coupled with the Stokes-Reynold-Young-Laplace model. Bubble-polystyrene (PS)/polyvinyl chloride (PVC) MP interactions exhibited stronger hydrophobic interactions (decay length D0 of 0.60 ± 0.03 nm/0.43 ± 0.02 nm for PS/PVC MP) than polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) MPs. Humic acid (HA) considerably reduced the D0 of hydrophobic interaction from 0.43-0.60 nm to 0.30-0.32 nm for PS and PVC MPs by introducing oxygen-containing components as evidenced by spectroscopic analysis. In contrast, alginate (Alg) accumulated less on PS/PVC MP surfaces, thereby negligibly affecting the D0 value. While for PMMA MPs, virtually identical D0 values were observed despite the presence of HA/Alg. Therefore, the bubble-driven transport of PS/PVC MPs were modulated by different types of NOM, whereas PMMA MPs could only be slightly affected. This work provides nanoscale insights into quantitative bubble-MP interactions, shedding light on understanding MPs global cycling.

Precision-induced localized molten liquid metal stamps for damage-free transfer printing of ultrathin membranes and 3D objects

Transfer printing, a crucial technique for heterogeneous integration, has gained attention for enabling unconventional layouts and high-performance electronic systems. Elastomer stamps are typically used for transfer printing, where localized heating for elastomer stamp can effectively control the transfer process. A key challenge is the potential damage to ultrathin membranes from the contact force of elastic stamps, especially with fragile inorganic nanomembranes. Herein, we present a precision-induced localized molten technique that employs either laser-induced transient heating or hotplate-induced directional heating to precisely melt solid gallium (Ga). By leveraging the fluidity of localized molten Ga, which provides gentle contact force and exceptional conformal adaptability, this technique avoids damage to fragile thin films and improves operational reliability compared to fully liquefied Ga stamps. Furthermore, the phase transition of Ga provides a reversible adhesion with high adhesion switchability. Once solidified, the Ga stamp hardens and securely adheres to the micro/nano-membrane during the pick-up process. The solidified stamp also exhibits the capability to maneuver arbitrarily shaped objects by generating a substantial grip force through the interlocking effects. Such a robust, damage-free, simply operable protocol illustrates its promising capabilities in transfer printing diverse ultrathin membranes and objects on complex surfaces for developing high-performance unconventional electronics.

Fabrication of Highly Photostable Polystyrene Films Embedded with Organometallic Complexes

Polystyrene is a common thermoplastic and is produced in different shapes and forms. The scale of manufacture of polystyrene has grown over the years because of its numerous applications and low cost of production. However, it is flammable, brittle, has low resistance to chemicals, and is susceptible to photodegradation on exposure to ultraviolet radiation. There is therefore scope to improve the properties of polystyrene and to extend its useful lifetime. The current work reports the synthesis of organometallic complexes and investigates their use as photostabilizers for polystyrene. The reaction of excess ibuprofen sodium salt and appropriate metal chlorides in boiling methanol gave the corresponding complexes excellent yields. The organometallic complexes (0.5% by weight) were added to polystyrene and homogenous thin films were made. The polystyrene films blended with metal complexes were irradiated with ultraviolet light for extended periods of time and the stabilizing effects of the additives were assessed. The infrared spectroscopy, weight loss, depression in molecular weight, and surface morphology of the irradiated blends containing organometallic complexes were investigated. All the synthesized organometallic complexes acted as photostabilizers for polystyrene. The damage (e.g., formation of small polymeric fragments, decrease in weight and molecular weight, and irregularities in the surface) that took place in the polystyrene blends was much lower in comparison to the pure polystyrene film. The manganese-containing complex was very effective in stabilizing polystyrene and was superior to cobalt and nickel complexes.

Fabrication of Novel Ball-Like Polystyrene Films Containing Schiff Base Microspheres as Photostabilizers

Polystyrene films containing a low concentration of three highly aromatic Schiff bases were prepared using the casting method. The polystyrene films were irradiated with ultraviolet light (300 h). The polystyrene infrared spectra, weight loss, molecular weight reduction and the surface morphology were examined upon irradiation. The Schiff bases acted as photostabilizers and reduced the photodegradation of polystyrene films to a significant level in comparison to the blank film. The images recorded of the surface of the miscible polystyrene/Schiff base blends showed novel ball-like microspheres with a diameter of 3.4⁻4.3 µm. The Schiff bases were able to endow excellent protection to polystyrene against ultraviolet irradiation.

Calcium-Mediated Adhesion of Nanomaterials in Reservoir Fluids

Globally, a small percentage of oil is recovered from reservoirs using primary and secondary recovery mechanisms, and thus a major focus of the oil industry is toward developing new technologies to increase recovery. Many new technologies utilize surfactants, macromolecules, and even nanoparticles, which are difficult to deploy in harsh reservoir conditions and where failures cause material aggregation and sticking to rock surfaces. To combat these issues, typically material properties are adjusted, but recent studies show that adjusting the dispersing fluid chemistry could have significant impact on material survivability. Herein, the effect of injection fluid salinity and composition on nanomaterial fate is explored using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results show that the calcium content in reservoir fluids affects the interactions of an AFM tip with a calcite surface, as surrogates for nanomaterials interacting with carbonate reservoir rock. The extreme force sensitivity of AFM provides the ability to elucidate small differences in adhesion at the pico-Newton (pN) level and provides direct information about material survivability. Increasing the calcium content mitigates adhesion at the pN-scale, a possible means to increase nanomaterial survivability in oil reservoirs or to control nanomaterial fate in other aqueous environments.

Adhesion and friction in polymer films on solid substrates: conformal sites analysis and corresponding surface measurements

In this work, we present a statistical mechanical analysis to elucidate the molecular-level factors responsible for the static and dynamic properties of polymer films. This analysis, which we term conformal sites theory, establishes that three dimensionless parameters play important roles in determining differences from bulk behavior for thin polymer films near to surfaces: a microscopic wetting parameter, α_wx, defined as the ratio of polymer-substrate interaction to polymer-polymer interaction; a dimensionless film thickness, H*; and dimensionless temperature, T*. The parameter α_wx introduced here provides a more fundamental measure of wetting than previous metrics, since it is defined in terms of intermolecular forces and the atomic structure of the substrate, and so is valid at the nanoscale for gas, liquid or solid films. To test this theoretical analysis, we also report atomic force microscopy measurements of the friction coefficient (μ), adhesion force (F_A) and glass transition temperature (T_g) for thin films of two polymers, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS), on two planar substrates, graphite and silica. Both the friction coefficient and the glass transition temperature are found to increase as the film thickness decreases, and this increase is more pronounced for the graphite than for the silica surface. The adhesion force is also greater for the graphite surface. The larger effects encountered for the graphite surface are attributed to the fact that the microscopic wetting parameter, α_wx, is larger for graphite than for silica, indicating stronger attraction of polymer chains to the graphite surface.

Multiscaling Approach for Non-Destructive Adhesion Studies of Metal/Polymer Composites

The adhesion of polyamide 6 (PA6) and polyethylene (PE) toward an aluminum alloy (Al-A) and a dual phase steel (DPS) is studied by contact angle (CA) measurements and atomic force microscopy (AFM). With the combination of the two methods the adhesion properties on a macro- and (sub)microscopic scale can be determined in a nondestructive way. The work of adhesion per area (Wad) of the studied metal/polymer hybrids qualitatively scales the same on both length scales, that is, Al-A/PA6 > DPS/PA6 > Al-A/PE, DPS/PE. The polymer dominates the adhesion. The lower adhesion for PE toward the metal surfaces is explained by dominating van der Waals attraction forces, whereas adhesion for PA6 can also be attributed to attractive polar forces such as hydrogen bonding. For metal/PA6, Wad on a macro- and microscopic length scale is similar. For metal/PE, a discrepancy is measured with lower adhesion values on the microscopic scale than on the macroscopic scale.

Subsurface-AFM: sensitivity to the heterodyne signal

Applying heterodyne force microscopy (HFM), it has been impressively demonstrated that it is possible to obtain subsurface information: 20 nm large gold nanoparticles that were buried 500 nm deep have been imaged. It is the heterodyne signal that contains the subsurface information. We elucidate, both theoretically and experimentally, the sensitivity to the heterodyne signal as a function of the tip-sample distance. This is crucial information for experiments as the distance, and therefore the sensitivity, is tunable. We show that the amplitude of the heterodyne signal has a local maximum in the attractive part of the tip-sample interaction, before it surprisingly reaches an even higher plateau, when the tip-sample interaction is repulsive. This can only be explained by a non-decreasing amplitude of the ultrasonic motion of the tip, although it is in full contact with the surface. We confirm this counterintuitive tip behavior experimentally even on a hard surface like silicon.

Adhesion properties of uric acid crystal surfaces

Two key steps in kidney stone formation--crystal aggregation and attachment to renal tissues--depend on the surface adhesion properties of the crystalline components. Anhydrous uric acid (UA) is the most common organic crystalline phase found in human kidney stones. Using chemical force microscopy, the adhesion force between various functional groups and the largest (100) surface of UA single crystals was measured in both aqueous solution and model urine. Adhesion trends in the two solutions were identical, but were consistently lower in the latter. Changes in the solution ionic strength and pH were also found to affect the magnitude of the adhesion. UA surfaces showed the strongest adhesion to cationic functionalities, which is consistent with ionization of some surface uric acid molecules to urate. Although hydrogen-bonding and van der Waals interactions are usually considered to be dominant forces in the association between neutral organic compounds, this work demonstrates that electrostatic interactions can be important, particularly when dealing with weak acids under certain solution conditions.

Measuring the influence of solution chemistry on the adhesion of au nanoparticles to mica using colloid probe atomic force microscopy

Engineered nanoparticles are used increasingly in numerous commercial products, leading to concerns over their environmental fate and ecotoxicity. We report the adaptation of colloid probe atomic force microscopy (AFM) to quantitatively determine the adhesive behavior of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) with mica, chosen as a model for sand, in various water chemistries. Au NP-covered polystyrene (PS) beads were prepared by a combined swelling-heteroaggregation (CSH) technique prior to attachment to tipless AFM cantilevers. Force measurements were performed over a range of solution conditions (pH, ionic strength (IS), and natural organic matter (NOM) content). Plain PS beads with no Au NPs were used as controls. In general, adhesion of Au NP-PS beads to mica were found to increase as IS increased while a rise in pH led to a decrease in adhesion. Plain PS beads were not observed to adhere to mica in any of the experimental solution conditions, and the PS force curves were unaffected by changes in the pH and electrolyte concentrations. In the presence of NOM, pull-off forces for Au NP-PS beads increased in magnitude when NaCl was added. In addition, the experimental approach force curves were not successfully described by the classical Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory of colloidal stability. To reconcile the discrepancy between theory and experiment, an extended DLVO (xDLVO) empirical model was used to account for the contribution of non-DLVO interactions (known collectively as structural forces) between the Au NPs and mica surfaces.

Measurement of pull-off force on imprinted nanopatterns in an inert liquid

We report on the measurement of the pull-off force on nanoscale patterns that are formed by thermal nanoimprint lithography (t-NIL). Various patterns with feature sizes in the range of 50-900 nm were fabricated on silicon substrates using a rigiflex polymeric mold of ultraviolet curable polyurethane acrylate (PUA, Young's modulus approximately 1 GPa) or perfluoropolyether (PFPE, Young's modulus approximately 10.5 MPa) and a resist layer of polystyrene (PS) of three different molecular weights (M(w) = 18,100, 211,600 and 2043,000). The pull-off force was measured in non-polar, non-reactive perfluorodecalin (PFD) solvent between a sharp atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip and an imprinted pattern. Our experimental data demonstrated that the measured pull-off forces were in good agreement with a simple adhesion model based on Lifshitz theory. Also, the force on the pressed region (valley) is higher than that on the cavity region (hill), with the ratio (hill/valley) decreasing with the decrease of pattern size and the increase of molecular weight. The confinement effects were more pronounced for smaller patterns (<300 nm) and higher molecular weights (M(w) = 211,600 and 2043,000) presumably due to sluggish movement of polymer chains into nano-cavities. Finally, the experimental observations were compared with molecular dynamic simulations based on a simplified amorphous polyethylene model.

Role of Lewis basicity and van der Waals forces in adhesion of silica MFI zeolites (010) with polyimides

Adhesion between zeolites and polymers is a central factor in achieving defect-free mixed-matrix membranes for energy-efficient gas separations. In this work, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to measure adhesion forces between a pure silica MFI (ZSM-5: Zeolite Socony Mobil-Five) (010) zeolite probe and a series of polyimide (Matrimid 5218, 6FDA-DAM, 6FDA-6FpDA, and 6FDA-DAM:DABA (3:2)) and polyetherimide (Ultem 1000) polymers in air. Combined with measurements of surface energy of the polymer surfaces, the dependence of adhesion on polymer structure was determined. Adhesion force was strongly dependent on the Lewis basicity component of polymer surface energy and was less dependent on van der Waals (VDW) components, by a factor of about 6. Hydrogen bonding likely occurs between the acidic (electron acceptor) component of the zeolite surface (silanols or adsorbed water) and the basic (electron donor) component of the polymer surface. Adhesion force was strongly correlated with the mole fraction of carbonyls per monomer. We conclude that differences in adhesion as a function of polymer structure were primarily controlled by the polymer's Lewis basicity, contributed primarily by carbonyl groups.

Characterization of ragweed pollen adhesion to polyamides and polystyrene using atomic force microscopy

Pollen is a leading contributor to asthma and allergies, yet pollen adhesion to common indoor surfaces is not well understood. We report the adhesive behavior of short ragweed (A. artemisiifolia) pollen grains with Nylon 6 (N6) and Nylon 6,6 (N66), chosen due to their use in synthetic carpet, and three control surfaces: polyamide 12 (PA12), polystyrene (PS), and silicon. The forces were measured by using atomic force microscopy (AFM) under controlled humidity, where single pollen grains were attached to tipless AFM cantilevers. Pollen grains had an average adhesion of 10 +/- 3 nN with the surfaces, independent of surface type or relative humidity from 20% to 60%. van der Waals forces are the primary molecular attraction driving pollen adhesion to these surfaces. The results also indicate that ragweed pollen contacts the polymer surface via its exine surface spikes, and the total adhesion force scales with the number of contacts. The pollen surface spikes are strong, resisting fracture and compliance up to a load of 0.5 GPa.