Engineering of freestanding films

Abstract

The PhD work is focuses on the study, characterization and formation of freestanding films. A film is a system in which two dimensions prevail over the third one. In case of freestanding films both surfaces are free; they can be supported by a solid mount of any geometry or float on a liquid, even bubbles are freestanding films. Many innovations were achieved such as a new quantitative, self-reference and full-field thickness map measurement technique. New advances in understanding the phenomenon of leveling of freestanding thin liquid films were also achieved. A totally new device to handle and form freestanding films was designed and build, this new device has a very high number of applications which are not only related directly to freestanding films. This device is capable of overcome many limitations and problems of other devices that forms freestanding films. Moreover, a new protocol for particle deposition on liquid-air (or liquid-liquid) was design. Finally, two novel methods were invented to control the buckling instability of Graphene Sheets particles with many possible applications in stretchable electronics and much more

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