Thursday  |  Conference Center A  |  01:50 PM–02:10 PM

#13617, Adhesion Measurements for Graphene-Elastomer Interfaces

Flexible electronics devices typically comprise of soft elastomeric films bonded to conductive/ semi-conductor layers. They serve as replacements to conventional rigid electronic systems and find use in many high-performance applications such as foldable solar cells, biomechatronic sensors, implants, and robotic actuators. Consequently, the delamination of the polymer-layer interface is important failure mode for these devices. Thus, understanding the nature of the interfacial behavior between the viscoelastic polymers and the hard conductive/ semi-conductor layers is critical towards improving the lifetime of these devices. In this work, a miniaturized custom peel-test was developed to perform the adhesion experiments at different peel rate (10 nm/s-1mm/s) and at different peel angles (45°-135°). Peel tests are performed on PDMS-Graphene interfaces at nominal peel rates of 50 μm/s. To enable the accurate quantification of the interfacial adhesion, a novel fabrication process was developed to transfer graphene/GO monolayers on the PDMS substrates and attach another PDMS strip. The resultant PDMS-graphene-PDMS laminate design will ensure that the delamination process will occur at the PDMS-graphene interface. The interfacial adhesion between the polymer binder and graphene monolayers were quantified using a viscoelastic framework that accounts for the viscoelastic compliance of the PDMS as well as membrane strain and bending strain of the elastomeric strips.

Meena Kodali   Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Prajwal Bharadwaj   Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Nikhil Karanjgaokar   Worcester Polytechnic Institute