Histograms of pull-off forces between SiOx

Figure 3 Histograms of pull-off forces measured between a SiOx probe and PS, i-PP, PVDF, and FEP surfaces in perfluorodecalin. Reproduced from ref (10) 1998 American Chemical Society.

First Polymer Series. The first series of polymers was investigated, in order to limit the interaction between an AFM probe and polymer surfaces to only the dispersion (London) component of the Van der Waals force. Adhesional forces were measured between a S10,t probe and a set of nonpolar polymers that provided a range of refractive indexes (as measured) polystyrene (1.582), isotactic polypropylene (1.501), poly(vinylidene fluoride) (1.407), and poly(tetrafluoroethylene-co-hexafluoropropylene) (1.348). The histograms of the pull-off forces, measured with a SiOx probe, are shown in Figure 2 and tabulated with the calculated values for adhesion energy in Table 1. 

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