Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Item
    Adhesion and relaxation of a soft elastomer on surfaces with skin like roughness
    (Amsterdam : Elsevier, 2018) Fischer, Sarah; Boyadzhieva, Silviya; Hensel, René; Kruttwig, Klaus; Arzt, Eduard
    For designing new skin adhesives, the complex mechanical interaction of soft elastomers with surfaces of various roughnesses needs to be better understood. We systematically studied the effects of a wide set of roughnesscharacteristics, film thickness, hold time and material relaxation on the adhesive behaviour of the silicone elastomer SSA 7–9800 (Dow Corning). As model surfaces, we used epoxy replicas obtained from substrates with roughness ranging from very smooth to skin-like. Our results demonstrate that films of thin and intermediate thickness (60 and 160 μm) adhered best to a sub-micron rough surface, with a pull-off stress of about 50 kPa. Significant variations in pull-off stress and detachment mechanism with roughness and hold time were found. In contrast, 320 μm thick films adhered with lower pull-off stress of about 17 kPa, but were less sensitive to roughness and hold time. It is demonstrated that the adhesion performance of the siliconefilms to rough surfaces can be tuned by tailoring the film thickness and contact time.
  • Item
    Elevated temperature adhesion of bioinspired polymeric micropatterns to glass
    (Amsterdam : Elsevier, 2017) Barreau, Viktoriia; Yu, Dan; Hensel, René; Arzt, Eduard
    Micropatterned polymer surfaces that operate at various temperatures are required for emerging technical applications such as handling of objects or space debris. As the mechanical properties of polymers can vary significantly with temperature, adhesion performance can exhibit large variability. In the present paper, we experimentally study temperature effects on the adhesion of micropatterned adhesives (pillar length 20 μm, aspect ratios 0.4 and 2) made from three different polymers, i.e., polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), perfluoropolyether dimethacrylate (PFPEdma), and polyurethane (PU-ht). PU specimens showed the highest pull-off stresses of about 57 kPa at 60 °C, i.e., more than twice the value of unpatterned control samples. The work of separation similarly showed a maximum at that temperature, which was identified as the glass transition temperature, Tg. PDMS and PFPEdma specimens were tested above their Tg. As a result, the adhesion properties decreased monotonically (about 50% for both materials) for temperature elevation from 20 to 120 °C. Overall, the results obtained in our study indicate that the operating temperature related to the glass transition temperature should be considered as a significant parameter for assessing the adhesion performance of micropatterned adhesives and in the technical design of adhesion devices.
  • Item
    Improved development procedure to enhance the stability of microstructures created by two-photon polymerization
    (Amsterdam : Elsevier, 2018) Purtov, Julia; Verch, Andreas; Rogin, Peter; Hensel, René
    Natural functional surfaces often rely on unique nano- and micropatterns. To mimic such surfaces successfully, patterning techniques are required that enable the fabrication of three-dimensional structures at the nanoscale. It has been reported that two-photon polymerization (TPP) is a suitable method for this. However, polymer structures fabricated by TPP often tend to shrink and to collapse during the fabrication process. In particular, delicate structures suffer from their insufficient mechanical stability against capillary forces which mainly arisein the fabrication process during the evaporation of the developer and rinsing liquids. Here, we report a modified development approach, which enables an additional UV-treatment to post cross-link created structures before they are dried. We tested our approach on nanopillar arrays and microscopic pillar structures mimicking the moth-eye and the gecko adhesives, respectively. Our results indicate a significant improvement of the me- chanical stability of the polymer structures, resulting in fewer defects and reduced shrinkage of the structures.
  • Item
    Numerical study of adhesion enhancement by composite fibrils with soft tip layers
    (Amsterdam : Elsevier, 2016) Balijepalli, Ram Gopal; Fischer, Sarah C.L.; Hensel, René; McMeeking, Robert M.; Arzt, Eduard
    Bio-inspired fibrillar surfaces with reversible adhesion to stiff substrates have been thoroughly investigated over the last decade. In this paper we propose a novel composite fibril consisting of a soft tip layer and stiffer stalk with differently shaped interfaces (flat vs. curved) between them. A tensile stress is applied remotely on the free end of the fibril whose other end adheres to a rigid substrate. The stress distributions and the resulting adhesion of such structures were numerically investigated under plane strain (2D) and axisymmetric (3D) conditions. The stress intensities were evaluated for different combinations of layer thickness and Young’s moduli. The adhesion strength values were found to increase for thinner layers and larger modulus ratio; these trends are also reflected in selected experimental results. The results of this paper provide a new strategy for optimizing adhesion strength of fibrillar surfaces.