Premium
Functional Adhesive Surfaces with “Gecko” Effect: The Concept of Contact Splitting
Author(s) -
Kamperman Marleen,
Kroner Elmar,
del Campo Aránzazu,
McMeeking Robert M.,
Arzt Eduard
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
advanced engineering materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1527-2648
pISSN - 1438-1656
DOI - 10.1002/adem.201000104
Subject(s) - adhesion , materials science , gecko , adhesive , contact mechanics , contact area , nanotechnology , composite material , deformation (meteorology) , structural engineering , layer (electronics) , finite element method , ecology , engineering , biology
Nature has developed reversibly adhesive surfaces whose stickiness has attracted much research attention over the last decade. The central lesson from nature is that “patterned” or “fibrillar” surfaces can produce higher adhesion forces to flat and rough substrates than smooth surfaces. This paper critically examines the principles behind fibrillar adhesion from a contact mechanics perspective, where much progress has been made in recent years. The benefits derived from “contact splitting” into fibrils are separated into extrinsic/intrinsic contributions from fibril deformation, adaptability to rough surfaces, size effects due to surface‐to‐volume ratio, uniformity of stress distribution, and defect‐controlled adhesion. Another section covers essential considerations for reliable and reproducible adhesion testing, where better standardization is still required. It is argued that, in view of the large number of parameters, a thorough understanding of adhesion effects is required to enable the fabrication of reliable adhesive surfaces based on biological examples.