Fig. 1. Schematic of a cantilever plate experiment in which a flexible silanized glass plate (1) of rigidity D₁ is peeled from a thin elastic film bonded to a flexible plate (2) of rigidity D₂ in a displacement controlled experiment by inserting a spacer between the two flexible plates. Δ₁and Δ₂ are respectively the vertical displacements of the two plates at the location of the spacer. The distance of the contact line (the dashed line) from the spacer is a measure of the adhesion strength between the two surfaces.

The schematic representation of our experiment is shown in Fig.1 in which a flexible plate 1 of rigidity is peeled from a thin (40 – 450 μm) elastic film of thickness h bonded to another flexible substrate 2 of rigidity . The surface of plate 1 is modified by supporting a self-assembled monolayer of alkyl-siloxane. We consider peeling in displacement controlled mode which can be done by inserting a spacer between the two plates. As a result the two plates undergo vertical displacements and at the pivoted end. The distance , between the spacer and the line of contact of the film and plate 1 is a measure of the adhesion strength of the interface.