Abstract
Inspired by geckos' adhesion, the effect of water membrane forming due to the environmental humidity, on the adhesion between a bio-inspired nano-film and a substrate is investigated first. The disjoining pressure is considered, which results in an enhancing adhesion between the nano-film and substrate. When the thickness of water membrane increases, water droplets will form and a repulsive capillary force between the nano-film and substrate is produced. The total adhesion force decreases with an increasing volume of water droplets. The two opposite results in the two different models are consistent well with two seemingly inconsistent experimental observations by Huber et al. (2005) [4] and Sun et al. (2005) [5], respectively, and may be significant for the development of artificial biomimetic attachment systems.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 717-721 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces |
Volume | 88 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Dec 2011 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Adhesion
- Gecko
- Nano-film
- Relative humidity
- Water droplet