Understanding adhesion behavior between paper materials and inorganic substrate is important to minimize surface contamination by paper fragments. In this work, we investigate adhesion mechanisms between paper sheet and glass in terms of molecular interaction. Molecular dynamics simulations are employed to calculate adhesion force between paper sheet and the silica glass surfaces. Pulling and sliding tests are simulated to find the effects of the paper compositions such as mannan, glucan, and glucuronoxylan and humidity on the adhesion. Simulation results reveal that crystalline cellulose film of mannan unit (uni-directional hydroxyl groups) shows higher adhesion than that of glucan unit (bi-directional hydroxyl groups). Also, addition of just a few glucuronoxylan (xylan) hemicellulose molecules on the cellulose film remarkably enhances adhesion force, because of carboxylic acid groups with strong polarity in xylan. In addition, introduction of humidity leads to a further increase of adhesion due to hydrogen bonds bridged by water molecules. The adhesion force is maximized around 10 H2O/nm2 because as the humidity increases, hydrogen bond interactions are saturated, whereas the Van der Waals interactions decrease due to thicker water layer. It is discussed that consideration of the capillary force for paper may result in different adhesion response that reflects more realistic situation.

Paper is a popular platform material in all areas of sensor research due to its porosity, large surface area, and biodegradability, to name but a few. Many paper-based nanocomposites have been reported in the last decade as novel substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). However, there are still limiting factors, like the low density of hot spots or loss of wettability. Herein, we designed a process to fabricate a silver–chitosan nanocomposite layer on paper celluloses by a layer-by-layer method and pH-triggered chitosan assembly. Under microscopic observation, the resulting material showed a nanoporous structure, and silver nanoparticles were anchored evenly over the nanocomposite layer. In SERS measurement, the detection limit of 4-aminothiophenol was 5.13 ppb. Furthermore, its mechanical property and a strategy toward further biosensing approaches were investigated.

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Understanding the physical vapor deposition (PVD) process of metallic coatings on an inorganic substrate is essential for the packaging and semiconductor industry. In this work, we investigate a Copper (Cu) film deposition on a glassy Calcium Aluminosilicate (CAS) by PVD and its dependence on the incident energy. Molecular dynamics simulation is adopted to mimic the deposition process, and pure Cu film is grown on top of CAS surface forming intermixing region (IR) of Cu oxide. In the initial stage of deposition, incident Cu atoms are diffused into CAS bulk and aggregated at the surface which leads to the formation of IR. When the high incident energy, 2 eV, is applied, 20% more Cu atoms are observed at the interface compared to the low incident energy, 0.2 eV, due to enhanced lateral diffusion. As the Cu film grows, the amorphous thin Cu layer of 1 nm is temporarily formed on top of CAS, and crystallization with face-centered cubic from amorphous structure follows regardless of incident energy, and surface roughness is observed to be low for high incident energy cases. Deformation and failure behavior of Cu-CAS bilayer by pulling is investigated by steered molecular dynamics technique. The adhesive failure mode is observed, which implies the bilayer experiences a failure at the interface, and a 7% higher adhesion force is predicted for the high incident energy case. To find an origin of adhesion enhancement, the distribution of Cu atoms on the fractured CAS surface is analyzed, and it turns out that 6.3% more Cu atoms remain on the surface, which can be regarded as a source for the high adhesion force. Our findings hopefully give the insight to understand deposition and failure mechanisms between heterogeneous materials and are also helping to further improve Cu adhesion in sputter experiments.