Strong Wet and Dry Adhesion by Cupped Microstructures.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
; 11(29): 26483-26490, 2019 Jul 24.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31241296
Recent advances in bio-inspired microfibrillar adhesives have resulted in technologies that allow reliable attachment to a variety of surfaces. Because capillary and van der Waals forces are considerably weakened underwater, fibrillar adhesives are however far less effective in wet environments. Although various strategies have been proposed to achieve strong reversible underwater adhesion, strong adhesives that work both in air and underwater without additional surface treatments have yet to be developed. In this study, we report a novel design-cupped microstructures (CM)-that generates strong controllable adhesion in air and underwater. We measured the adhesive performance of cupped polyurethane microstructures with three different cup angles (15, 30, and 45°) and the same cup diameter of 100 µm in dry and wet conditions in comparison to standard mushroom-shaped microstructures (MSMs) of the same dimensions. In air, 15°CM performed comparably to the flat MSM of the same size with an adhesion strength (force per real contact area) of up to 1.3 MPa, but underwater, 15°CM achieved 20 times stronger adhesion than MSM (â¼1 MPa versus â¼0.05 MPa). Furthermore, the cupped microstructures exhibit self-sealing properties, whereby stronger pulls lead to longer stable attachment and much higher adhesion through the formation of a better seal.
Texto completo:
1
Bases de datos:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
Asunto de la revista:
BIOTECNOLOGIA
/
ENGENHARIA BIOMEDICA
Año:
2019
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Alemania