Machine Learning-Based and Experimentally Validated Optimal Adhesive Fibril Designs.

Setae, fibrils located on a gecko's feet, have been an inspiration of synthetic dry microfibrillar adhesives in the last two decades for a wide range of applications due to unique properties: residue-free, repeatable, tunable, controllable and silent adhesion; self-cleaning; and breathability. However, designing dry fibrillar adhesives is limited by a template-based-design-approach using a pre-determined bioinspired T- or wedge-shaped mushroom tip. Here, a machine learning-based computational approach to optimize designs of adhesive fibrils is shown, exploring a much broader design space. A combination of Bayesian optimization and finite element methods creates novel optimal designs of adhesive fibrils, which are fabricated by two-photon-polymerization-based 3D microprinting and double-molding-based replication out of polydimethylsiloxane. Such optimal elastomeric fibril designs outperform previously proposed designs by maximum 77% in the experiments of dry adhesion performance on smooth surfaces. Furthermore, finite-element-analyses reveal that the adhesion of the fibrils is sensitive to the 3D fibril stem shape, tensile deformation, and fibril microfabrication limits, which contrast with the previous assumptions that mostly neglect the deformation of the fibril tip and stem, and focus only on the fibril tip geometry. The proposed computational fibril design could help design future optimal fibrils with less help from human intuition.

Liquid-Superrepellent Bioinspired Fibrillar Adhesives.

Bioinspired elastomeric fibrillar surfaces have significant potential as reversible dry adhesives, but their adhesion performance is sensitive to the presence of liquids at the contact interface. Like their models in nature, many artificial mimics can effectively repel water, but fail when low-surface-tension liquids are introduced at the contact interface. A bioinspired fibrillar adhesive surface that is liquid-superrepellent even toward ultralow-surface-tension liquids while retaining its adhesive properties is proposed herein. This surface combines the effective adhesion principle of mushroom-shaped fibrillar arrays with liquid repellency based on double re-entrant fibril tip geometry. The adhesion performance of the proposed microfibril structures is retained even when low-surface-tension liquids are added to the contact interface. The extreme liquid repellency enables real-world applications of fibrillar adhesives for surfaces covered with water, oil, and other liquids. Moreover, fully elastomeric liquid-superrepellent surfaces are mechanically not brittle, highly robust against physical contact, and highly deformable and stretchable, which can increase the real-world uses of such antiwetting surfaces.

Publisher Correction: Mapping microscale wetting variations on biological and synthetic water-repellent surfaces.

The original version of this Article contained an error in Fig. 2b. The y-axis label in Fig. 2b was incorrectly labelled 'Snap-in force (µN)'. In the correct version, the axis is labelled 'Snap-in force (nN)'. In the original version of this Article, the "Butterfly wings" section of the Methods incorrectly stated the name of the butterfly as 'Golden bird'. In the correct version, the name of the butterfly is 'Golden birdwing'. These have now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the article.

Mapping microscale wetting variations on biological and synthetic water-repellent surfaces.

Droplets slip and bounce on superhydrophobic surfaces, enabling remarkable functions in biology and technology. These surfaces often contain microscopic irregularities in surface texture and chemical composition, which may affect or even govern macroscopic wetting phenomena. However, effective ways to quantify and map microscopic variations of wettability are still missing, because existing contact angle and force-based methods lack sensitivity and spatial resolution. Here, we introduce wetting maps that visualize local variations in wetting through droplet adhesion forces, which correlate with wettability. We develop scanning droplet adhesion microscopy, a technique to obtain wetting maps with spatial resolution down to 10 µm and three orders of magnitude better force sensitivity than current tensiometers. The microscope allows characterization of challenging non-flat surfaces, like the butterfly wing, previously difficult to characterize by contact angle method due to obscured view. Furthermore, the technique reveals wetting heterogeneity of micropillared model surfaces previously assumed to be uniform.

Controlling the motion of multiple objects on a Chladni plate.

The origin of the idea of moving objects by acoustic vibration can be traced back to 1787, when Ernst Chladni reported the first detailed studies on the aggregation of sand onto nodal lines of a vibrating plate. Since then and to this date, the prevailing view has been that the particle motion out of nodal lines is random, implying uncontrollability. But how random really is the out-of-nodal-lines motion on a Chladni plate? Here we show that the motion is sufficiently regular to be statistically modelled, predicted and controlled. By playing carefully selected musical notes, we can control the position of multiple objects simultaneously and independently using a single acoustic actuator. Our method allows independent trajectory following, pattern transformation and sorting of multiple miniature objects in a wide range of materials, including electronic components, water droplets loaded on solid carriers, plant seeds, candy balls and metal parts.

Maskless, High-Precision, Persistent, and Extreme Wetting-Contrast Patterning in an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope.

A maskless and programmable direct electron beam writing method is reported for making high-precision superhydrophilic-superhydrophobic wetting patterns with 152° contact angle contrast using an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). The smallest linewidth achieved is below 1 µm. The reported effects of the electron beam induced local plasma may also influence a variety of microscopic wetting studies in ESEM.