The adhesive behavior of extracted latex polymers towards silicon oxide and cellulose

The objective with this work is to compare the adhesive behavior for latex polymers of different glass transition temperatures (T_g) at different length scales and with different contact times. This is accomplished by two techniques: AFM colloidal probe force measurements and JKR-measurements. The aim is to compare the results from these two techniques and relate them to the interaction of the latex polymers towards oxidized silicon wafers and silica/cellulose probes. Theory suggests that altering the short timeframes used in the colloidal probe technique does not affect the ranking of the adhesion for the different polymers, but for the macroscopic JKR-technique it influences the measured work of adhesion. It is therefore important to let the system reach a steady state before assuming complete spreading and adhesion. AFM and JKR measurements showed the same trends where the polymer with lowest content of styrene has the lowest T_g and the highest adhesion, due to the larger polymer chain mobility.