Effects of Stretching on Flexible Organic Electronic Structures

Oyewole, Oluwaseun Kehinde (2011-12-15)

Thesis

This work presents the responses of optical properties and mechanical failure of layers of stretchable organic electronic structures under tension using analytical, simulations, and experimental techniques. The interfacial contact around dust particles was modelled. The deformation induced during stretching was also modelled before simulating the stress distributions and calculating the crack driving forces of the layers using finite element analysis. The finite element simulation of adhesion and contact around dust particle was done to fully understand the effects of adhesion on contact length of a two-layer structure. To understand how these structures behave under service condition, a stretchable organic electronic was fabricated. Each of the fabricated layers was fully characterized to know how their optical property and grain structure are being affected under monotonic loading. The adhesion forces and values of surface roughness of the layered structures were also measured using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The adhesion forces were incorporated into developed models along with their material properties, in order to calculate their interfacial adhesion energies. The results obtained are, therefore, summarized.