Quantitative Erfassung von Oberflächentopographien

Some applications of Atomic Force Microscopy in adhesion science and technology are presented. The essential advantage of AFM over mere imaging methods is the capability of quantitatively acquiring the topography of the sample surface. This in turn allows a number of useful quantitative evaluations of the surface. The examples described are fluorination and oxygen plasma treatment of a polypropylene foil for improvement of adhesion. Moreover it is evidenced that AFM can provide nanoscopic insight into adhesion phenomena by imaging the islands of adsorbed adhesive molecules. They show specific characteristics of their geometric shape depending on the kind of adhesive molecule and on the type of substrate.