Surface-force-induced deformations of monodisperse polystyrene spheres on planar silicon substrates

Abstract

The contact radii between polystyrene spheres, having diameters between approximately 1.5 and 12 μm, and polished silicon wafers, arising from adhesion forces, were determined using scanning electron microscopy. It was found that the contact radius varied approximately as the square root of the particle radius. This dependence is consistent with nonelastic response models of adhesion, such as those proposed by Krupp [H. Krupp, Adv. Colloid Interface Sci. 1, 111 (1967)] and by Maugis and Pollock [D. Maugis and H. M. Pollock, Acta Metall. 32, 1323 (1984)], but is inconsistent with various elastic response models which assume Hertzian deformations. The experimentally determined contact radii are also compared to those obtained for polystyrene spheres on a polyurethane substrate [D. S. Rimai, L. P. DeMejo, and R. C. Bowen, J. Appl. Phys. 66, 3574 (1989)].