Open AccessForce measurements using capillary instabilities
Author(s) -
Steiner Ullrich
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of polymer science part b: polymer physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1099-0488
pISSN - 0887-6266
DOI - 10.1002/polb.20631
Subject(s) - van der waals force , capillary action , force field (fiction) , thin film , materials science , planar , surface force , chemical physics , physics , classical mechanics , nanotechnology , composite material , molecule , quantum mechanics , computer graphics (images) , computer science
This article reviews some recent experimental studies on film instabilities. Since surface instabilities of planar films are driven by destabilizing interfacial pressures, the patterns that form in thin films are a signature of these interfacial forces. The direct correspondence of pattern selection and the underlying destabilizing pressures provides a way to quantitatively determine these interface potentials. This principle is documented for three different film destabilization mechanisms: van der Waals forces, forces caused by an applied electric field, and forces that arise from the confinement of thermal molecular motion in the film. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 43: 3395–3405, 2005