Related papers: Two comments on adhesion
We consider two perfectly smooth featureless surfaces at T=0, defined only by their respective dielectric functions, separated by a finite distance, and ask the question whether they can experience any friction when sheared parallel to…
Biological adhesion is a critical mechanical function of complex organisms operating at multiple scales. At the cellular scale, cell-cell adhesion is remarkably tunable to enable both cohesion and malleability during development,…
Biomimetic membranes in contact with a planar substrate or a second membrane are studied theoretically. The membranes contain specific adhesion molecules (stickers) which are attracted by the second surface. In the absence of stickers, the…
Faced with the Kauzmann paradox, glasses have always been a puzzle for condensed matter theorists. We show that in a new picture of condensed matter, which takes into account the coherent interaction mechanisms of QED, glasses are nothing…
The wetting properties of graphene have proven controversial and difficult to assess. The presence of a graphene layer on top of a substrate does not significantly change the wetting properties of the solid substrate, suggesting that a…
It is shown on the basis of scaling arguments that a disordered interface between two elastic solids will quite generally exhibit static and "dry friction" (i.e., kinetic friction which does not vanish as the sliding velocity approaches…
Application of the principle of energy balance to a rigid indenter in contact with elastic layer on a flat rigid substrate provides a very simple derivation of the detachment criterion which earlier has been obtained by much more…
We provide the theoretical basis for understanding the phenomenon in which an ultra cold atom incident on a possibly warm target will not stick, even in the large $n$ limit where $n$ is the number of internal degrees of freedom of the…
A microscopic theory for the ubiquitous phenomenon of static friction is presented. Interactions between two surfaces are modeled by an energy penalty that increases exponentially with the degree of surface overlap. The resulting static…
The functionality of adhesives relies on their response under the application of a load. Yet, it has remained a challenge to quantitatively relate the macroscopic dynamics of peeling to the dissipative processes inside the adhesive layer.…
We present a molecular dynamics study of the contact between a rigid solid with a randomly rough surface and an elastic block with a flat surface. The numerical calculations mainly focus on the contact area and the interfacial separation…
Understanding the contact between rough surfaces undergoing plastic deformation is crucial in many applications. We study the effect of plastic deformation on the surface separation between two solids with random roughness. Assuming a…
Soft adhesive pads are needed for many robotics applications, and one approach is based on electroadhesion. Here we present a general analytic model and numerical results for electroadhesion for soft solids with arbitrary time-dependent…
Understanding glass formation is a challenge because the existence of a true glass state, distinct from liquid and solid, remains elusive: Glasses are liquids that have become too viscous to flow. An old idea, as yet unproven…
Glasses and gels, widely encountered amorphous solids with diverse industrial and everyday applications, share intriguing similarities such as rigidity without crystalline order and dynamic slowing down during aging. However, the underlying…
We present a fluid dynamics video showing the adhesion of a drop to a superhydrophobic surface. We use environmental scanning electron microscopy to observe depinning events at the microscale. As the drop moves along the surface, the…
This study proposes a new fundamental formula that describes in a more coherent way, the rise and fall of liquids in capillaries. The variation of the contact angle classically associated with these phenomena appears to be the indirect…
Crumpling of a thin film leads to a unique stiff yet lightweight structure. The stiffness has been attributed to a complex interplay between four basic elements - smooth bends, sharp folds, localized points (developable cones), and…
Recent literature indicates that attractive interactions between particles of a dense liquid play a secondary role in determining its bulk mechanical properties. Here we show that, in contrast with their apparent unimportance to the bulk…
The compression of soft elastic matter and biological tissue can lead to creasing, an instability where a surface folds sharply into periodic self-contacts. Intriguingly, the unfolding of the surface upon releasing the strain is usually not…