Thin film adhesion and morphology of graphene on undulated electronic substrates

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20002650

Adhesion is the interaction between dissimilar particles or surfaces, which has significant impacts in nanotechnology and life sciences, such as stability of microstructures, cell adhesion, and bacterial aggregation. In order to quantify adhesion, several theoretical models have been built from the pioneered work of Hertz contact theory to the Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR), Derjaguin-Muller-Toporov (DMT), and Dugdale-Barenblatt-Maugis models. These celebrated contact mechanics models have been shown to be successful in a wide spectrum of metallic, ceramic and polymeric solid materials, and continue to make invaluable contributions in many branches of science and technology. However, these models inevitably break down in thin membranes, shells and microcapsules that exercise plate-bending and membrane-stretching and conform to the contact surface geometry.