Related papers: Tree-frog-inspired osmocapillary adhesive bonding …
I study how the contact area and the work of adhesion, between two elastic solids with randomly rough surfaces, depend on the relative humidity. The surfaces are assumed to be hydrophilic, and capillary bridges form at the interface between…
We analyze the transparency of a thin film of low refractive index (an optical glue or a bonding layer) placed between higher-index media and forming an opto-pair. Examples include a semiconductor light-emitting diode with attached lens or…
The displacement of a suspension of particles by an immiscible fluid in a capillary tube or in a porous media is a canonical configuration that finds application in a large number of natural and industrial applications, including water…
Inks of permanent markers and water-proof cosmetics create elastic thin films upon application on a surface. Such adhesive materials are deliberately designed to exhibit water-repellent behavior. Therefore, patterns made up of these inks…
The next generation of soft electronics will expand to the third dimension. This will require the integration of mechanically-compliant three-dimensional functional structures with stretchable materials. This study demonstrates…
Polymer brushes, coatings consisting of densely grafted macromolecules, experience an intrinsic lateral compressive pressure, originating from chain elasticity and excluded volume interactions. This lateral pressure complicates a proper…
Osmotic deflation of vesicles enclosing two liquid phases can lead to bulging of one of the phases from the vesicle body. This budding process is preceded by a complete to partial wetting transition of one of the liquid phases on the…
The adhesion of two-dimensional (2D) materials to other surfaces is so far believed to be a solid-solid mechanical contact. Here, we conduct both atomistic simulations and theoretical modeling to show that there exists a reversible…
Thousands of plant and animal species have been observed to have superhydrophobic surfaces that lead to various novel behaviors [1-5]. These observations have inspired attempts to create artificial superhydrophobic surfaces, given such…
By mixing glass beads with a curable polymer we create a well-defined cohesive granular medium, held together by solidified, and hence elastic, capillary bridges. This material has a geometry similar to a wet packing of beads, but with an…
We report on the onset of fluid entrainment when a contact line is forced to advance over a dry solid of arbitrary wettability. We show that entrainment occurs at a critical advancing speed beyond which the balance between capillary,…
The fabrication of novel soft materials is an important scientific and technological challenge. We investigate the response of magnetic ellipsoidal particles adsorbed at fluid-fluid interfaces to external magnetic fields. By exploiting…
Biological agents possess bodies that are mostly of soft tissues. Researchers have resorted to soft bodies to investigate Artificial Life (ALife)-related questions; similarly, a new era of soft-bodied robots has just begun. Nevertheless,…
Using Migdal-Eliashberg theory implemented in Electron Phonon Wannier (EPW) code, we have investigated anisotropic superconductivity in a ternary boride $\mathrm{Ta(MoB)_2}$. It is a single-gap, anisotropic, phonon-mediated superconductor…
The rapid adhesion of motile bacteria from dilute suspensions poses a fundamental non-equilibrium problem: hydrodynamic interactions bias bacterial motion near surfaces without generating stable confinement, while electrostatic interactions…
Over the past few decades, efforts have been made towards robust robotic grasping, and therefore dexterous manipulation. The soft gripper has shown their potential in robust grasping due to their inherent properties-low, control complexity,…
We introduce a novel technique for grabbing water with a flexible solid. This new passive pipetting mechanism was inspired by floating flowers and relies purely on the coupling of the elasticity of thin plates and the hydrodynamic forces at…
The surface free energy, or surface tension, of a liquid interface gives rise to a pressure jump when the interface is curved. Here we show that a similar capillary pressure arises at the interface of soft solids. We present experimental…
Liquids in contact with solids are submitted to intermolecular forces inferring density gradients at the walls. The van der Waals forces make liquid heterogeneous, the stress tensor is not any more spherical as in homogeneous bulks and it…
For optimal application, pressure-sensitive adhesives must have rheological properties in between those of a viscoplastic solid and those of a viscoelastic liquid. Such adhesives can be produced by emulsion polymerisation, resulting in…