Understanding the interface between organic and inorganic materials presents many challenges due to the complex chemistries involved. Modeling and experimental work have elucidated only a few facets of the physical and chemical nature of the adhesion between such surfaces. In this work, we use density functional theory to, understand the adhesion between five different inorganic crystal surfaces (two-dimensional silica, both sides of kaolinite, hydroxylated quartz, hydroxylated albite) with five different organic molecules (benzene, phenol, phthalimide, N-phenylmaleimide, diphenyl ether). In the analysis, we explore the binding motifs that constitute parts of a polyimide monomer and examine their interactions with increasingly complex crystal surfaces. Comparing these systems, we elucidate the key factors (such as electrostatic interactions, hydrogen bond formation, and cation effects) that affect adhesion of organics on inorganic surfaces. It is found that the presence of cations and the availability of the oxygen species, in either the organic or inorganic layers, allows for increased hydrogen bonding. The most significant contribution to adhesion is from the rearrangement of surface electrostatic interactions. These factors can be used to optimize adhesion by decomposing both the organic and inorganic materials into the constituent interactions and help design improved interfacial properties.

Understanding the interaction between polyimide and inorganic surfaces is vital in controlling interfacial adhesion behavior. Here, molecular dynamics simulations are employed to study the adhesion of polyimide on both crystalline and glassy silica surfaces, and the effects of hydroxylation, silica structure, and polyimide chemistry on adhesion are investigated. The results reveal that polyimide monomers have stronger adhesion on hydroxylated surfaces compared to nonhydroxylated surfaces. Also, adhesion of polyimide onto silica glass is stronger compared to the corresponding crystalline surfaces. Finally, we explore the molecular origins of adhesion to understand why some polyimide monomers like Kapton have a stronger adhesion per unit area (adhesion density) than others like BPDAAPB. We find this occurs due to a higher density of oxygen's in the Kapton monomer, which we found to have the highest contribution to, adhesion density.