ABSTRACT
In the previous chapters, it was shown that the deformation of the polymer films with the nanometric coatings is accompanied by a number of general phenomena. In [1], these systems are referred to as a ‘rigid coating on a soft substratum’ (RCSS). It should be mentioned that the deformation of the systems results in a special type of surface structure formation. Different types of deformation result in the formation of regular microreliefs on the surface of the films with the hard nanometric coating. The parameters of the resultant relief contain information on the properties of the material of the polymer substrate and the coating [2–5]. The deformation of this type is a simple and useful method for evaluating quantitatively the mechanical properties of the solids in cases in which the evaluation of this type is very difficult or generally not possible, for example, in the evaluation of the stress–strain characteristics of the nanometric coatings [6–8]. In fact, it is difficult to imagine the changes of the fundamental characteristics such as the yield stress, fracture strength or fracture strain of the solid with nanometric dimensions. As shown in chapter 10, this problem can be easily solved in the deformation of the polymer films with the nanometric coatings followed by analysis of the parameters of the resultant microrelief.
