Correlation of surface morphology and interfacial adhesive behavior between cellulose surfaces: Quantitative measurements in Peak-Force Mode with colloidal probe technique

A better understanding of cellulose-cellulose interactions is needed in applications such as paper-making and all-cellulose composites. To date cellulose-cellulose studies have been chemistry-oriented. In these studies, the sample surfaces have been modified with different chemicals and then tested under an atomic force microscope (AFM) using a colloidal probe (CP). Studies of cellulose-cellulose interaction based on sample morphology and mechanical properties have been rare due to the complex surface structure and the soft texture of the cellulose. The current surface interaction models, such as the Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) model, in which the studied bodies are assumed to have smooth surfaces, can no longer fully reveal the interfacial behavior between two cellulose surfaces. Therefore, we propose a new type of contact model for rough-rough interaction by dividing the surface contacts into primary and secondary levels. The main idea of the new model is to take into account local individual contact d...