A modified De-Gennes's trumpet model for the prediction of practical adhesion of dynamically- and structurally heterogeneous polymeric networks on solid surfaces

A theoretical model was proposed which can explain the practical adhesion energy of highly heterogeneous glassy polymeric networks on solid surfaces. In this paper the “trumpet model” of de-Gennes was modified to cover the case of adhesion of such networks. The contributions of dynamic and structural heterogeneity of the network in the practical adhesion energy were considered by incorporating the distribution parameter ( β in KWW model) and interfacial strength terms into the trumpet model. The basic parameters of the proposed model were extracted from dynamic and static mechanical tests. It was found that the proposed model is able to predict the practical adhesion energy of both heterogeneous and highly heterogeneous networks. A very good agreement was found between the predicted values of the adhesion energy and its actual values in case of nine different photo-polymerizable compositions exhibiting a relatively wide range of dynamic and structural heterogeneities.