Related papers: Modification of adhesion between microparticles an…
The issue of ice accumulation at low-temperature circumstances causes multiple problems and serious damages in many civil infrastructures which substantially influence human daily life. However, despite the significant consideration in…
The evaporation of a tiny amount of water on the solid surface with different wettability has been studied by molecular dynamics simulations. We found that, as the surface changed from hydrophobicity to hydrophility, the evaporation speed…
Whereas it is experimentally known that the inclusion of nanoparticles in hydrogels can lead to a mechanical reinforcement, a detailed molecular understanding of the adhesion mechanism is still lacking. Here we use coarse-grained molecular…
Controlling bacterial surface adhesion and subsequent biofilm formation in fluid systems is crucial for the safety and efficacy of medical and industrial processes. Here, we theoretically examine the transport of bacteria close to surfaces,…
Tribological phenomena are governed by combined effects of material properties, topology and surface-chemistry. We study the interplay of multiscale surface structures with molecular-scale interactions towards interpreting static frictional…
We study the formation of nanometer thick oxide layers around nanoparticles (plateaus) in a wet nitrogen environment over 32 days. We determine both the plateau height and the lateral force needed to remove the particles with an atomic…
We derive a connection between the intrinsic tribological properties and the electronic properties of a solid interface. In particular, we show that the adhesion and frictional forces are dictated by the electronic charge redistribution…
Adhesion requires molecular contact, and natural adhesives employ mechanical gradients to achieve complete (conformal) contact to maximize adhesion. Intuitively, one expects that the higher the modulus of the top layer, the lower will be…
Microgels are soft colloidal particles constituted by cross-linked polymer networks with a high potential for applications. In particular, after adsorption at a fluid interface, interfacial tension provides two-dimensional (2D) confinement…
Inspired by numerous lab on a chip, biomedical and bioengineering applications such as cell sorting, focusing, trapping, and filtering of particles, manipulation of micron sized particle trajectories has been of significant interest in the…
Adhesion plays an integral role in diverse biological functions ranging from cellular transport to tissue development. Estimation of adhesion strength, therefore, becomes important to gain biophysical insight into these phenomena. In this…
The dynamics of drop impact on solid surfaces can be changed significantly by tuning the elasticity of the solid. Most prominently, the substrate deformation causes an increase in the splashing threshold as compared to impact onto perfectly…
Different hypotheses have been proposed to explain the mechanism for the extremely low friction coefficient of carbon coatings and its undesired dependence on air humidity. A decisive atomistic insight is still lacking because of the…
We present a single, unified, multi-scale model to study the attachment\detachment dynamics of two deforming, near spherical cells, coated with binding ligands and subject to a slow, homogeneous shear flow in a viscous fluid medium. The…
The tribology between surfaces can have a profound impact on the response of a mechanical system, such as how granular particles are driven to flow. In this work, we perform experiments that time-resolve the tangential and normal components…
We present single contact friction experiments between a glassy polymer and smooth silica substrates grafted with alkylsilane layers of different coverage densities and morphologies. This allows us to adjust the polymer/substrate…
We present our recent study on rough adhesive contacts of viscoelastic materials in steady-state sliding, focusing on the interplay between adhesion and viscoelasticity by means of a novel energy approach. We investigate tribological…
Nanostructured electronic devices, such as those based on graphene, are typically grown on top of the insulator SiO2. Their exposure to a flux of small size-selected silver nanoparticles has revealed remarkably selective adhesion: the…
Optical manipulation of micro- and nanoparticles near surfaces is fundamental for applications in sensing and microfluidics, yet controlling particle-surface interactions remains challenging. Here we experimentally investigate light-induced…
The adhesive behaviour of biological attachment structures such as spider web anchorages is usually studied using single or multiple peeling models involving "tapes", i.e. one-dimensional contacts elements. This is an oversimplification for…