Drop of water measures film elasticity

Chemical News: Drop of water measures film elasticity

https://www.chemnet.com Aug 08,2007 PRW.com
7 August 2007 - Scientists think they have found a way of measuring the elasticity and thickness of polymer sheets using a drop of water.

Placing a drop of water onto a floating polymer sheet produces wrinkles around the drop that appear to be a straight measure of elasticity and thickness.

The wrinkled patterns seem to support a recently developed theory, which relates the surface tension of the drop of water and capillary forces affecting the polymer film.

The wrinkles arise due to the surface tension of the drop of water on the thin flat disc-shaped sheets of polystyrene. The thickness of the sheets, defined by means of x-ray reflectivity, varied from 31 to 233 nanometres.

Other research methods being investigated involve applying the films to a rigid substrate, which may lead to mechanical tensions in the sheets.

The work was carried out by Wim de Jeu from the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF), in Amsterdam, and researchers from America and Chile.
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