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Crack Healing Between Rough Polycrystalline Silicon Hydrophilic Surfaces in n-Pentanol and Water Vapors

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Abstract

The crack healing rates of polycrystalline silicon microcantilevers in contact with a substrate are measured in n-pentanol vapor at different partial pressures, p/p s. The absolute value of the slope of the logarithmic average crack healing velocity \(\bar{v}\) versus the energy release rate G, \(|d[\log (\bar{v})]/dG|\), is constant and decreases with increasing p/p s. The slope dependence on p/p s is equivalent to that in a water vapor environment. This slope is independent of p/p s in glass stress corrosion cracking experiments due to chemical kinetics, while the present experiments reflect a capillary bridge nucleation mechanism across nanometer-scale gaps created by surface roughness. Equilibrium measurements of adhesion versus p/p s are also compared for n-pentanol and water vapor. For p/p s ≤ 0.5, adhesion is comparable for the two vapors, while for p/p s > 0.5, adhesion in water vapor is approximately twice that in n-pentanol vapor. At lower p/p s, this is explained by the larger Kelvin radius and the larger adsorbed layer thickness of n-pentanol. This combination enables larger asperity gaps to be bridged by capillary liquids. At higher p/p s, adhesion in water vapor is larger because the work of adhesion of capillary bridges becomes twice that of n-pentanol.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge National Science Foundation funding through CMMI Grant No. CMMI 1030322. We also thank the technical staff in the Microelectronics Development Laboratory at Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque, NM, 87108 for fabricating the microcantilevers. We thank Professor W. Robert Ashurst for suggesting the use of the molecular sieves technique.

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  1. Mechanical Engineering Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Emrecan Soylemez & Maarten P. de Boer

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  1. Emrecan Soylemez
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  2. Maarten P. de Boer
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Correspondence to Maarten P. de Boer.

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Soylemez, E., de Boer, M.P. Crack Healing Between Rough Polycrystalline Silicon Hydrophilic Surfaces in n-Pentanol and Water Vapors. Tribol Lett 59, 5 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-015-0525-2

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