Fracture behaviors of nanowire-coated metal/polymer systems under mode-I loading condition

In previous works, two kinds of nanowires were formed on the surface of a copper-based leadframe by immersing them in two kinds of hot alkaline solutions. The nanowire-coated copper-based leadframe sheets were molded with epoxy molding compound (EMC), and the molded bodies were machined to form sandwiched double-cantilever beam specimens to measure the fracture toughness of the nanowire-coated leadframe (metal)/EMC (polymer) interfaces under quasi-mode-I loading condition. After the adhesion test, the fracture surfaces were analyzed to clarify the failure path by using various equipments. The present work attempted to correlate the failure path to adhesion strength by using a simple adhesion model. (C) 2004 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.