Influence of Relative Humidity on Interparticle Capillary Adhesion

Langmuir. 2021 Nov 2;37(43):12714-12722. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c02167. Epub 2021 Oct 19.

Abstract

A homemade instrument is designed to directly characterize the adhesion between two rigid polymeric microspheres in the presence of moist air. The tensile load is measured as a function of approach distance at designated relative humidity (RH). The measurement is consistent with our model from the first approximation. The model is further extended to include a rough surface. Capillary adhesion force is shown to be monotonically increasing with RH for smooth surfaces but becomes more pronounced at low RH for rough surfaces. Moisture has a profound influence on interparticle adhesion, which has significant impacts on a wide range of industrial applications.