Measurement of the Adhesion Moment of a Particle on a Wall in a Gaseous Environment and Comparison to Simulated Data

Abstract

If a particle adheres to a wall, it is flattened. If such a particle is stressed sideways by an external force, it might start to roll. To send the particle into a rolling motion, a resistive moment must be overcome: The “adhesion moment”. In the first part the calculation of the adhesion force based on an atomic model is described. The results of the simulation are compared to experimental results. The calculation of the adhesion moment for flattened smooth particles with and without roughness is in the focus of the second part. Finally an experimental setup to measure the force that must be applied to an adhered particle to trigger a rolling motion in the specimen chamber of an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) is presented. From this force, the adhesion moment can be calculated. A detailed explanation of the experiments is given, and the results of the experiments are discussed.