Nanotechnology, polymers, tribology, paper coating

Education

Physics (Ph.D., Wisconsin, 1973)

Research interests

Chair, Nanoscale Science and Technology Division

American Vacuum Society

Secretary/Treasurer, Particle Adhesion Division

The Adhesion Society

University of Maine Research and Creative Achievement Award, 1993 William Unertl is Professor of Physics and a founding Member of the Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology at the University of Maine. He has also a member of the University’s Paper Surface Science Program since its inception in 1991. Prof. Unertl is an experimentalist with current interest in quantitative analysis of nanoscale contacts, nanotribology, and the application of contact mechanics. He has also studied surface structure of clean and adsorbate covered metals, phase transitions on surfaces, and adhesion at the metal-polymer interface. He has published over 90 scientific papers and made more than 130 presentations. He has been the advisor of 11 PhD students and received over $5 million in external support. Prof. Unertl obtained his Ph.D. in Solid State Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1973. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University, and a National Research Council Fellow at the National Bureau of Standards. He joined the University of Maine in 1977 and in 1993 received the University's Research and Creative Achievement Award. He has been a visiting scientist at Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories in Canada, the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin, the Surface Science Research Centre at the University of Liverpool, and the Naval Research Laboratory. He served as Director of the Laboratory for Surface Science & Technology from 1987-1990. He is a member of the American Vacuum Society, the American Physical Society, the Materials Research Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Adhesion Society. He Chair of the Nanoscale Science and Technology Division of the American Vacuum Society and Secretary/Treasurer of the Particle Adhesion Division of the Adhesion Society.

Manuscripts: The following manuscripts are available in PDF format. Viscoelastic Effects in nanometer-scale Contacts under Shear. (PDF file size 118 KB) K.J. Wahl, S.V. Stepnowski and W.N. Unertl, Vol 5 (1998), 103-107. Creep Effects in Viscoelastic Contacts. (PDF file size 835 KB) W.N. Unertl, to appear in the Journal of Adhesion Science. Dynamic Contacts to Viscoelastic films: Work of Adhesion. (PDF file size 696 KB) Manish Giri, Douglas Bousfield, W.N. Unertl, submitted to Langmuir, Oct 2000. Stress Intensity in Adhesive Viscoelastic Contacts. (PDF file size 597 KB) Manish Giri, Douglas Bousfield, W.N. Unertl, Tribology Letters, Vol 9, 2000, in press. Click here to see a POWERPOINT PRESENTATION giving a description of recent work studying the effect of crosslinking on particle spreading. (WARNING VERY GRAPHICS INTENSIVE)

Publications

• “Shear Modulation Studies of Nanometer-scale Contacts,” K. J. Wahl and W.N. Unertl, Proc. 21st Annual Meeting of the Adhesion Society (Adhesion Society, Blacksburg, 1998) p. 269-271.
• “Microtribological Properties of Al-O-N Thin Films,” S. D. Dvorak, O. D. Greenwood, W. N. Unertl and R. J. Lad, Mater. Res. Soc. Proc (1998).
• “Nanoscale Mechanical and Wear Properties of Boric Acid,” X. Ma, W. N. Unertl and A. Erdemir, J. Mater. Res. 14 (1999) 3455-3466.
• “Extended Abstract: Contact Mechanics of Nanometer-scale Contacts to Viscoelastic Materials,” in Tribology on the 300th Anniversary of Amonton’s Law, editors: M.D. Drory and M.O. Robbins (Materials Research Society, Warrendale, PA, 1999) p.15-18.
• “Formation of Nanometer-Scale Contacts to Viscoelastic Materials,” K.J. Wahl, in Tribology Issues and Opportunities in MEMS, ed. B. Bhushan (Kluwer Academic Publ., Dordrecht, 1998) p. 261-271.
• “Creep Effects in Nanometer-scale Contacts to Linear Viscoelastic Materials,” Chapter 4 in Microstructure and Microtribology of Polymer Surfaces ACS Symposium Series 741, eds. V.V. Tsukruk and K.J. Wahl (ACS, Washington DC, 2000) pp. 66-82.
• “Wetting and Spreading of Styrene-Butadiene Latexes on Calcite,” W. N. Unertl, Langmuir 14 (1998) 2201-2207.
• “Proceedings of a Workshop on the Physical and Chemical Mechanisms of Tribology,” published as a special issue of the journal Langmuir. Editors: W. N. Unertl and M. Grunze. Langmuir 12(19) 4481-4609 (1996).
• “Wetting and Spreading of Individual Latex Particles, W. N. Unertl, Y. Luo, D. Woodland, A. B. El Bediwi, M. Kamal, and A. El Farrash, Proceedings of the 19th Annual Adhesion Society Meeting (Adhesion Society, Blacksburg, VA, 1996) pp. 335-337.
• “Initial Wear in Nanometer-scale Contacts on Polystyrene,” D. D. Woodland and W. N. Unertl, Wear 203-204 (1997) 685-691.
• “Viscoelastic effects in nanometer-scale contacts under shear,” K. J. Wahl, S. V. Stepnowski, and W. N. Unertl, Tribology Lett. 5 (1998) 103-107.
• “Nanotribometer: a new instrument for nano-scale to micron-scale friction and wear measurements,” S. D. Dvorak, D. D. Woodland and W. N. Unertl, Tribology Lett. 4 (1997) 199-204.
• "Adhesion of Metals to Polyimide," W. N. Unertl and L. J. Matienzo in Polyimides: Fundamental and Applications, Edited by M. K. Ghosh and K. L. Mittal (Marcel Dekker, New York, 1996) p.629-696.
• Physical Structure: Volume One of the Handbook of Surface Science, Ed. W. N. Unertl; Series editors: S. Holloway and N. V. Richardson (Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 1996.
• “Surface Crystallography,” W. N. Unertl. Chapter One in Physical Structure: Volume One of the Handbook of Surface Science, Ed. W. N. Unertl; Series editors: S. Holloway and N. V. Richardson (Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 1996.
• “Direct Imaging Methods,” M. E. Kordesch and W. N. Unertl. Chapter Eight in Physical Structure: Volume One of the Handbook of Surface Science, Ed. W. N. Unertl; Series editors: S. Holloway and N. V. Richardson (Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 1996
• “Creep Effects in Nanometer-scale Contacts to Viscoelastic Materials,” W.N. Unertl, Proc. 22st Annual Meeting of the Adhesion Society (Adhesion Society, Blacksburg, 1999) p. 17-19.
• “Effects of Latex Acid Content on Particle Spreading,” D.D. Woodland, R. Marvel and W.N. Unertl, Proc. 22st Annual Meeting of the Adhesion Society (Adhesion Society, Blacksburg, 1999) p. 20-21.
• “Implications of Contact Mechanics Models for Mechanical Properties Measurements Using Scanning Force Microscopy” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 17 (1999) 1779-1786.
• “Stress Intensity in Viscoelastic Contacts,” M. Giri, D. Bousfield and W. N. Unertl, Tribology Lett. (In press, 2000).

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