Y. Leterrier et al., ADHESION OF SILICON-OXIDE LAYERS ON POLY(ETHYLENE-TEREPHTHALATE) .2. EFFECT OF COATING THICKNESS ON ADHESIVE AND COHESIVE STRENGTHS, Journal of polymer science. Part B, Polymer physics, 35(9), 1997, pp. 1463-1472
Fragmentation tests in the uniaxial mode were performed on poly(ethyle
ne terephthalate) (PET) films coated with a silicon oxide layer of thi
ckness ranging from 30 to 156 nm. The coating's fragmentation process
was investigated to reveal the crack onset strain and the crack densit
y at fragmentation saturation. Adhesive strength was modeled from the
Kelly-Tyson approach, including a Weibull distribution of the coating
strength. The prediction was found to be independent of coating thickn
ess, and equal to the substrate shear stress at saturation. The cohesi
ve strength of the coating was characterized from the crack onset stra
in. The measured decrease in crack onset strain with coating thickness
increase was modeled by means of Weibull and fracture mechanics theor
ies, the latter providing the best predictions. (C) 1997 John Wiley &
Sons, me.