Wrinkling and Cracking Instabilities As Tools for Material Characterization of Polymer Thin Films and Membranes

Nanotechnology promises to revolutionize a growing set of materials applications ranging from electronics to energy production to water purification.  However, the quest to engineer materials on the nanoscale is met with the daunting task of measuring the material properties of these systems at these same length scales.  For polymers, the challenge is even greater since conventional materials testing platforms lack the resolution for such soft systems.  In this session, I will discuss our current progress and advances in wrinkling and cracking-based methodologies for characterizing the physical and mechanical properties, as well as the relaxation dynamics in nanoscale polymeric materials.