Issue 9, 2008

Mechanically tunable dry adhesive from wrinkled elastomers

Abstract

We report a new dry adhesive structure using a rippled poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) elastomer bilayer film, whose surface roughness and adhesion can be reversibly regulated by applying mechanical strain. It has a set of advantages not offered by other techniques for regulation of adhesion, including real-time tunability, no requirement of specific surface chemistry, operability under ambient conditions, and relative ease of control. To understand the mechanism for adhesion regulation quantitatively, we have modeled the mechanics of adhesion in the limits of small- and large-amplitude ripples, and show good agreement with indentation experiments. We demonstrate the real-time tunability of the new adhesive structure by repeatedly picking and releasing a glass ball simply by modulating the mechanical stretch of the rippled PDMS film.

Graphical abstract: Mechanically tunable dry adhesive from wrinkled elastomers

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Feb 2008
Accepted
10 May 2008
First published
18 Jun 2008

Soft Matter, 2008,4, 1830-1835

Mechanically tunable dry adhesive from wrinkled elastomers

P. Lin, S. Vajpayee, A. Jagota, C. Hui and S. Yang, Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1830 DOI: 10.1039/B802848F

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