Mechanical characterization of nanoclay-filled PDMS thin films
Abstract(#br)Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) reinforced by nanoclay platelets exhibits excellent mechanical properties for microfluidic systems. We tested PDMS-clay nanocomposite thin films under flat-ended cylindrical indentation and measured the elastic modulus and shear strength. A simple formulation based on a shear-lag model, fed by numerical simulations, was introduced to estimate the interfacial shear strength of thin films. Increase in the nanoclay content improved the elasticity of PDMS-clay thin films but reduced their interfacial shear strength.