Garret DeNolf Graduate Student B.S. Materials Science & Engineering 2003, University of Michigan Cook Hall 2053A, 1-5934 g-denolf at northwestern dot edu

Adhesion Measurement of Membrane Layers

The adhesion of polymeric materials is becoming an increasingly important topic as the number of applications increase in medicine and other industries. Therefore, methods to measure the adhesion of polymeric materials to a variety of substrates are crucial to test materials in these applications. My project is centered around developing methods to quantify adhesion of thin polymer membranes to a variety of substrates. These measurement methods are being applied to the adhesion of curing paint.

There are two main methods used for my research. The first is a new membrane contact method to quantify adhesion of paint layers to different surfaces. In this technique a paint layer is applied to a thin, flexible membrane, and pressure is used to inflate the uncured paint layer into contact with a surface of interest. After the paint cures, the adhesion is quantified by a peeling step. The second method is utilizes a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to measure the curing of the paint. This instrument is extremely sensitive to changes in elasticity and viscosity. By measuring the resonant frequency of the system and other parameters, information on the curing process can be obtained.

This work is supported by Boeing and the Ford Motor Company.