Surface stress generation during formation of alkanethiol self-assembled monolayer (SAM)

A high resolution curvature interferometer [Wang, J., Shrotriya, P., Kim, K.S., 2006. Surface residual stress measurement using curvature interferometry. Experimental Mechanics 46 (1), 39–46] is utilized to measure surface stress development associated with formation of self-assembled monolayers (SAM) of octadecanethiols on macroscale domains (25 mm × 25 mm). Atomistic simulations are performed to investigate surface stress generation associated with SAM formation. The results of the molecular simulations are incorporated into the multiscale framework to understand the surface stress generation and curvature change observed during experiments at continuum scale.