Additively Manufactured Elastomeric Lattices for High Throughput Mechanical Quantification of Thin Glassy Polymeric Films

Understanding the microscale mechanics within nanoscale thin films is crucial to numerous technologies, ranging from flexible wearable devices to soft robotics to smart separation membranes. However, current techniques used to rapidly measure this behavior are primarily limited to linear and/or uniaxial techniques. In this work, we will discuss a high throughput concept to measure the elastic moduli, plasticity mechanisms and failure strain of thin films. We designed an experimental technique utilizing an additively manufactured compliant elastomeric lattice to replace the traditionally rigid copper grid technique developed by Lauterwasser and Kramer. By varying the geometries of the lattices with differing Poisson ratios, we can transduce the macroscopic, uniform, in-plane deformation into a wide range of local deformation fields at each lattice cell. By placing a thin glassy polymeric film on top of the lattice structure, each cell acts as a unique deformation stage, allowing simultaneous mapping of the yield and fracture envelope. Combining this with modeling, optical imaging and spectroscopy enables statistically robust analysis and understanding of various microscale mechanical parameters in parallel of a number of different material systems.