Condensation induced blistering as a measurement technique for the adhesion energy of nanoscale polymer films

Polymeric coatings having micro-to-nanoscale thickness show immense promise for enhancing thermal transport, catalysis, energy conversion, and water collection. Characterizing the work of adhesion (G) between these coatings and their substrates is key to understanding transport physics as well as mechanical reliability. Here, we demonstrate that water vapor condensation blistering is capable of in situ measurement of work of adhesion at the interface of polymer thin films with micrometer spatial resolution. We use our method to characterize adhesion of interfaces with controlled chemistry such as fluorocarbon/fluorocarbon (CF_n/CF_m, n, m = 0-3), fluorocarbon/hydrocarbon (CF_n/CH_m), fluorocarbon/silica (CF_n/SiO₂), and hydrocarbon/silica (CH_n/SiO₂) interfaces showing excellent agreement with adhesion energy measured by the contact angle approach. We demonstrate the capability of our condensation blister test to achieve measurement spatial resolutions as low as 10 μm with uncertainties of ∼10%. The outcomes of this work establish a simple tool to study interfacial adhesion.