(393c) High Throughput Screening Test for Adhesion in Polymer Films Using Centrifugation

High-throughput mechanical testing can accelerate materials science research both by assisting in novel materials discovery and by developing predictive models with techniques such as machine learning. However, the mounting demand for enormous material property datasets to realize predictive models is unfulfilled by the limited throughput of the current techniques. An inherent challenge in developing these assays is preparing test samples in high throughput and applying a homogenous mechanical probing force for characterization. Moreover, equipment costs and instrument limitations of the existing methods inhibit their widespread adoption. We address this problem by developing a high-throughput colorimetric method for testing mechanical adhesion using a common laboratory centrifuge, multi-well plates, and microparticles. The technique applies a homogenous detachment force across the samples in the multi-well plate using a centrifuge. We also develop a high-throughput sample deposition method to prepare films with uniform thickness in each well, enhancing well-to-well consistency in the measurements. Our centrifugal adhesion testing method can differentiate polymer films with variable adhesion strengths and shows excellent agreement with the well-known probe tack adhesion test. We can achieve a throughput of thousands of samples per run, and are limited only by the number of wells in the plates. With its simplicity, low cost and large dynamic range, this high-throughput method has the potential to change the landscape of adhesive material characterization.