摘要
Polymer layers adsorbed to a surface or in a confined environment often change their mechanical properties. There is even the possibility of solidification of the confined layer. To judge the stiffness of such a layer, we used the Hertz model to calculate the Young＇s modulus of the polymer layer in the confinement of AFM experiments with silicon nitride tip with a radius of curvature ofR ≈ 50 nm and a glass sphere attached to the cantilever R =5 μm. Since there is no visible indentation of the layer in the AFM experiments, the layer is either penetrated very easily, or the indentation is too small to be seen in a force curve. The latter would be the case for a polymer layer with a Young＇s modulus above 4 × 10^8 Pa in case of an experiment with a silicon nitride tip and 4×10^5 Pa in case of a glass sphere.
Polymer layers adsorbed to a surface or in a confined environment often change their mechanical properties. There is even the possibility of solidification of the confined layer. To judge the stiffness of such a layer, we used the Hertz model to calculate the Young＇s modulus of the polymer layer in the confinement of AFM experiments with silicon nitride tip with a radius of curvature ofR ≈ 50 nm and a glass sphere attached to the cantilever R =5 μm. Since there is no visible indentation of the layer in the AFM experiments, the layer is either penetrated very easily, or the indentation is too small to be seen in a force curve. The latter would be the case for a polymer layer with a Young＇s modulus above 4 × 10^8 Pa in case of an experiment with a silicon nitride tip and 4×10^5 Pa in case of a glass sphere.
