A Low-Voltage, High-Force Capacity Electroadhesive Clutch Based on Ionoelastomer Heterojunctions

Electroadhesive devices with dielectric films can electrically program changes in stiffness and adhesion, but require hundreds of volts and are subject to failure by dielectric breakdown. Recent work on ionoelastomer heterojunctions has enabled reversible electroadhesion with low voltages, but these materials exhibit limited force capacities and high detachment forces. It is a grand challenge to engineer electroadhesives with large force capacities and programmable detachment at low voltages (<10 V). In this work, tough ionoelastomer/metal mesh composites with low surface energies are synthesized and surface roughness is controlled to realize sub-ten-volt clutches that are small, strong, and easily detachable. Models based on fracture and contact mechanics explain how clutch compliance and surface texture affect force capacity and contact area, which is validated over different geometries and voltages. These ionoelastomer clutches outperform the best existing electroadhesive clutches by fivefold in force capacity per unit area (102 N cm-2 ), with a 40-fold reduction in operating voltage (± 7.5 V). Finally, the ability of the ionoelastomer clutches to resist bending moments in a finger wearable and as a reversible adhesive in an adjustable phone mount is demonstrated.

Biomechanical Impact of Pathogenic MYBPC3 Truncation Variant Revealed by Dynamically Tuning In Vitro Afterload

Engineered cardiac microtissues were fabricated using pluripotent stem cells with a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy associated c. 2827 C>T; p.R943x truncation variant in myosin binding protein C (MYBPC3+/-). Microtissues were mounted on iron-incorporated cantilevers, allowing manipulations of cantilever stiffness using magnets, enabling examination of how in vitro afterload affects contractility. MYPBC3+/- microtissues developed augmented force, work, and power when cultured with increased in vitro afterload when compared with isogenic controls in which the MYBPC3 mutation had been corrected (MYPBC3+/+(ed)), but weaker contractility when cultured with lower in vitro afterload. After initial tissue maturation, MYPBC3+/- CMTs exhibited increased force, work, and power in response to both acute and sustained increases of in vitro afterload. Together, these studies demonstrate that extrinsic biomechanical challenges potentiate genetically-driven intrinsic increases in contractility that may contribute to clinical disease progression in patients with HCM due to hypercontractile MYBPC3 variants.

Versatile Adhesion-Based Gripping via an Unstructured Variable Stiffness Membrane

Reversible and variable dry adhesion is a promising approach for versatile robotic grasping. Variable stiffness materials with a modulus that can be tuned using an external stimulus offer a unique approach to realize dynamic control of adhesion. In this study, an unstructured shape memory polymer (SMP) membrane with variable stiffness is used to pick-and-place three-dimensional objects. The variable stiffness of the SMP allows the membrane to conform to and make good contact with objects of various shapes in its soft state and then achieve high adhesive load capacity by switching to the stiff state. Release of objects is realized by switching to the soft state. The ratio between the high-adhesion and low-adhesion state is demonstrated to be >2000 on a curved substrate and ∼115 on a flat substrate. This gripper exhibits no adhesion in the unactivated state and maintains adhesion passively once actuation is complete.

A mechanics-based approach to realize high–force capacity electroadhesives for robots

Materials with electroprogrammable stiffness and adhesion can enhance the performance of robotic systems, but achieving large changes in stiffness and adhesive forces in real time is an ongoing challenge. Electroadhesive clutches can rapidly adhere high stiffness elements, although their low force capacities and high activation voltages have limited their applications. A major challenge in realizing stronger electroadhesive clutches is that current parallel plate models poorly predict clutch force capacity and cannot be used to design better devices. Here, we use a fracture mechanics framework to understand the relationship between clutch design and force capacity. We demonstrate and verify a mechanics-based model that predicts clutch performance across multiple geometries and applied voltages. On the basis of this approach, we build a clutch with 63 times the force capacity per unit electrostatic force of state-of-the-art electroadhesive clutches. Last, we demonstrate the ability of our electroadhesives to increase the load capacity of a soft, pneumatic finger by a factor of 27 times compared with a finger without an electroadhesive.

The Interplay of Polymer Bridging and Entanglement in Toughening Polymer-Infiltrated Nanoparticle Films

Polymer-nanoparticle composite films (PNCFs) with high loadings of nanoparticles (NPs) (>50 vol %) have applications in multiple areas, and an understanding of their mechanical properties is essential for their broader use. The high-volume fraction and small size of the NPs lead to physical confinement of the polymers that can drastically change the properties of polymers relative to the bulk. We investigate the fracture behavior of a class of highly loaded PNCFs prepared by polymer infiltration into NP packings. These polymer-infiltrated nanoparticle films (PINFs) have applications as multifunctional coatings and membranes and provide a platform to understand the behavior of polymers that are highly confined. Here, the extent of confinement in PINFs is tuned from 0.1 to 44 and the fracture toughness of PINFs is increased by up to a factor of 12 by varying the molecular weight of the polymers over 3 orders of magnitude and using NPs with diameters ranging from 9 to 100 nm. The results show that brittle, low molecular weight (MW) polymers can significantly toughen NP packings, and this toughening effect becomes less pronounced with increasing NP size. In contrast, high MW polymers capable of forming interchain entanglements are more effective in toughening large NP packings. We propose that confinement has competing effects of polymer bridging increasing toughness and chain disentanglement decreasing toughness. These findings provide insight into the fracture behavior of confined polymers and will guide the development of mechanically robust PINFs as well as other highly loaded PNCFs.

Role of Molecular Layering in the Enhanced Mechanical Properties of Stable Glasses

The density, degree of molecular orientation, and molecular layering of vapor-deposited stable glasses (SGs) vary with substrate temperature (T_dep) below the glass-transition temperature (T_g). Density and orientation have been suggested to be factors influencing the mechanical properties of SGs. We perform nanoindentation on two molecules which differ by only a single substituent, allowing one molecule to adopt an in-plane orientation at low T_dep. The reduced elastic modulus and hardness of both molecules show similar T_dep dependences, with enhancements of 15-20% in reduced modulus and 30-45% in hardness at T_dep ≈ 0.8T_g, where the density of vapor-deposited films is enhanced by ∼1.4% compared to that of the liquid-quenched glass. At T_dep < 0.8T_g, one of the molecules produces highly unstable glasses with in-plane orientation. However, both systems show enhanced mechanics. Both the modulus and hardness correlate with the degree of layering, which is similar in both systems despite their variable stability. We suggest that nanoindentation performed normal to the film's surface is influenced by the tighter packing of the molecules in this direction.

Humidity dependence of fracture toughness of cellulose fibrous networks

Cellulose-based materials are increasingly finding applications in technology due to their sustainability and biodegradability. The sensitivity of cellulose fiber networks to environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity is well known. Yet, there is an incomplete understanding of the dependence of the fracture toughness of cellulose networks on environmental conditions. In the current study, we assess the effect of moisture content on the out-of-plane (i.e., z-dir.) fracture toughness of a particular cellulose network, specifically Whatman cellulose filter paper. Experimental measurements are performed at 16% RH along the desorption isotherm and 23, 37, 50, 75% RH along the adsorption isotherm using out-of-plane tensile tests and double cantilever beam (DCB) tests. Cohesive zone modeling and finite element simulations are used to extract quantitative properties that describe the crack growth behavior. Overall, the fracture toughness of filter paper decreased with increasing humidity. Additionally, a novel model is developed to capture the high peak and sudden drop in the experimental force measurement caused by the existence of an initiation region. This model is found to be in good agreement with experimental data. The relative effect of each independent cohesive parameter is explored to better understand the cohesive zone-based humidity dependence model. The methods described here may be applied to study rupture of other fiber networks with weak bonds.

Materials with Electroprogrammable Stiffness

Stiffness is a mechanical property of vital importance to any material system and is typically considered a static quantity. Recent work, however, has shown that novel materials with programmable stiffness can enhance the performance and simplify the design of engineered systems, such as morphing wings, robotic grippers, and wearable exoskeletons. For many of these applications, the ability to program stiffness with electrical activation is advantageous because of the natural compatibility with electrical sensing, control, and power networks ubiquitous in autonomous machines and robots. The numerous applications for materials with electrically driven stiffness modulation has driven a rapid increase in the number of publications in this field. Here, a comprehensive review of the available materials that realize electroprogrammable stiffness is provided, showing that all current approaches can be categorized as using electrostatics or electrically activated phase changes, and summarizing the advantages, limitations, and applications of these materials. Finally, a perspective identifies state-of-the-art trends and an outlook of future opportunities for the development and use of materials with electroprogrammable stiffness.

Magnetic field tuning of mechanical properties of ultrasoft PDMS-based magnetorheological elastomers for biological applications

We report tuning of the moduli and surface roughness of magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) by varying applied magnetic field. Ultrasoft MREs are fabricated using a physiologically relevant commercial polymer, Sylgard™ 527, and carbonyl iron powder (CIP). We found that the shear storage modulus, Young's modulus, and root-mean-square surface roughness are increased by ~41×, ~11×, and ~11×, respectively, when subjected to a magnetic field strength of 95.5 kA m-1. Single fit parameter equations are presented that capture the tunability of the moduli and surface roughness as a function of CIP volume fraction and magnetic field strength. These magnetic field-induced changes in the mechanical moduli and surface roughness of MREs are key parameters for biological applications.

Polymer-infiltrated nanoplatelet films with nacre-like structure via flow coating and capillary rise infiltration (CaRI)

Alignment of highly anisotropic nanomaterials in a polymer matrix can yield nanocomposites with unique mechanical and transport properties. Conventional methods of nanocomposite film fabrication are not well-suited for manufacturing composites with very high concentrations of anisotropic nanomaterials, potentially limiting the widespread implementation of these useful structures. In this work, we present a scalable approach to fabricate polymer-infiltrated nanoplatelet films (PINFs) based on flow coating and capillary rise infiltration (CaRI) and study the processing-structure-property relationship of these PINFs. We show that films with high aspect ratio (AR) gibbsite (Al (OH)3) nanoplatelets (NPTs) aligned parallel to the substrate can be prepared using a flow coating process. NPTs are highly aligned with a Herman's order parameter of 0.96 and a high packing fraction >80 vol%. Such packings show significantly higher fracture toughness compared to low AR nanoparticle (NP) packings. By depositing NPTs on a polymer film and subsequently annealing the bilayer above the glass transition temperature of the polymer, polymer infiltrates into the tortuous NPT packings though capillarity. We observe larger enhancement in the modulus, hardness and scratch resistance of NPT films upon polymer infiltration compared to NP packings. The excellent mechanical properties of such films benefit from both thermally promoted oxide bridge formation between NPTs as well as polymer infiltration increasing the strength of NPT contacts. Our approach is widely applicable to highly anisotropic nanomaterials and allows the generation of mechanically robust polymer nanocomposite films for a diverse set of applications.

Versatile Soft Robot Gripper Enabled by Stiffness and Adhesion Tuning via Thermoplastic Composite

Within the field of robotics, stiffness tuning technologies have potential for a variety of applications-perhaps most notably for robotic grasping. Many stiffness tuning grippers have been developed that can grasp fragile or irregularly shaped objects without causing damage and while still accommodating large loads. In addition to limiting gripper deformation when lifting an object, increasing gripper stiffness after contact formation improves load sharing at the interface and enhances adhesion. In this study, we present a novel stiffness and adhesion tuning gripper, enabled by the thermally induced phase change of a thermoplastic composite material embedded within a silicone contact pad. The gripper operates by bringing the pad into contact with an object while in its heated, soft state, and then allowing the pad to cool and stiffen to form a strong adhesive bond before lifting the object. Pull-off tests conducted using the gripper show that transitioning from a soft to stiff state during grasping enables up to 6 × increase in adhesion strength. Additionally, a finite element model is developed to simulate the behavior of the gripper. Finally, pick-and-place demonstrations are performed, which highlight the gripper's ability to delicately grasp objects of various shapes, sizes, and weights.

Adhesion of flat-ended pillars with non-circular contacts

Fibrillar adhesives composed of fibers with non-circular cross-sections and contacts, including squares and rectangles, offer advantages that include a larger real contact area when arranged in arrays and simplicity in fabrication. However, they typically have a lower adhesion strength compared to circular pillars due to a stress concentration at the corner of the non-circular contact. We investigate the adhesion of composite pillars with circular, square and rectangular cross-sections each consisting of a stiff pillar terminated by a thin compliant layer at the tip. Finite element mechanics modeling is used to assess differences in the stress distribution at the interface for the different geometries and the adhesion strength of different shape pillars is measured in experiments. The composite fibrillar structure results in a favorable stress distribution on the adhered interface that shifts the crack initiation site away from the edge for all of the cross-sectional contact shapes studied. The highest adhesion strength achieved among the square and rectangular composite pillars with various tip layer thicknesses is approximately 65 kPa. This is comparable to the highest strength measured for circular composite pillars and is about 6.5× higher than the adhesion strength of a homogenous square or rectangular pillar. The results suggest that a composite fibrillar adhesive structure with a local stress concentration at a corner can achieve comparable adhesion strength to a fibrillar structure without such local stress concentrations if the magnitude of the corner stress concentrations are sufficiently small such that failure does not initiate near the corners, and the magnitude of the peak interface stress away from the edge and the tip layer thickness are comparable.

Strong, Ultralight Nanofoams with Extreme Recovery and Dissipation by Manipulation of Internal Adhesive Contacts

Advances in three-dimensional nanofabrication techniques have enabled the development of lightweight solids, such as hollow nanolattices, having record values of specific stiffness and strength, albeit at low production throughput. At the length scales of the structural elements of these solids-which are often tens of nanometers or smaller-forces required for elastic deformation can be comparable to adhesive forces, rendering the possibility to tailor bulk mechanical properties based on the relative balance of these forces. Herein, we study this interplay via the mechanics of ultralight ceramic-coated carbon nanotube (CNT) structures. We show that ceramic-CNT foams surpass other architected nanomaterials in density-normalized strength and that, when the structures are designed to minimize internal adhesive interactions between CNTs, more than 97% of the strain after compression beyond densification is recovered. Via experiments and modeling, we study the dependence of the recovery and dissipation on the coating thickness, demonstrate that internal adhesive contacts impede recovery, and identify design guidelines for ultralight materials to have maximum recovery. The combination of high recovery and dissipation in ceramic-CNT foams may be useful in structural damping and shock absorption, and the general principles could be broadly applied to both architected and stochastic nanofoams.

Switchable Adhesion via Subsurface Pressure Modulation

Materials and devices with tunable dry adhesion have many applications, including transfer printing, climbing robots, and gripping in pick-and-place processes. In this paper, a novel soft device to achieve dynamically tunable dry adhesion via modulation of subsurface pneumatic pressure is introduced. Specifically, a cylindrical elastomer pillar with a mushroom-shaped cap and annular chamber that can be pressurized to tune the adhesion is investigated. Finite element-based mechanics models and experiments are used to design, understand, and demonstrate the adhesion of the device. Specifically, the device is designed using mechanics modeling such that the pressure applied inside the annular chamber significantly alters the stress distribution at the adhered interface and thus changes the effective adhesion strength. Devices made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with different elastic moduli were tested against glass, silicon, and aluminum substrates. Adhesion strengths (σ₀) ranging from ∼37 kPa (between PDMS and glass) to ∼67 kPa (between PDMS and polished aluminum) are achieved for the nonpressurized state. For all cases, regardless of the material and roughness of the substrates, the adhesion strength dropped to 40% of the strength of the nonpressurized state (equivalent to a 2.5× adhesion switching ratio) by increasing the chamber pressure from 0.3σ₀ to 0.6σ₀. Furthermore, the strength drops to 20% of the unpressurized strength (equivalent to a 5× adhesion switching ratio) when the chamber pressure is increased to σ₀.

Thermal Degradation of Polystyrene under Extreme Nanoconfinement

Extreme nanoconfinement has been shown to significantly affect the properties of materials. Here we demonstrate that extreme nanoconfinement can significantly improve the thermal stability of polystyrene (PS) and reduce its flammability. Capillary rise infiltration (CaRI) is used to infiltrate PS into films of randomly packed silica nanoparticles (NPs) to produce highly confined states. We demonstrate that as the NP size is decreased, increasing the degree of confinement, the isothermal degradation time is dramatically increased, by up to a factor of 30 at 543 K for PS confined in ∼3 nm pores. The activation energy of PS degradation is also increased, by 50 kJ/mol in the most confined state (∼3 nm pores). We demonstrate that the degradation proceeds through the film surface and from the center of large holes toward NP surfaces, indirect evidence that the process is diffusion limited. The surface-driven process dramatically reduces char formation even in large NP packings that show no significant changes in their dynamics and glass transition temperature (T_g) compared to the bulk.

Soft nanocomposite electroadhesives for digital micro- and nanotransfer printing

Automated handling of microscale objects is essential for manufacturing of next-generation electronic systems. Yet, mechanical pick-and-place technologies cannot manipulate smaller objects whose surface forces dominate over gravity, and emerging microtransfer printing methods require multidirectional motion, heating, and/or chemical bonding to switch adhesion. We introduce soft nanocomposite electroadhesives (SNEs), comprising sparse forests of dielectric-coated carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which have electrostatically switchable dry adhesion. SNEs exhibit 40-fold lower nominal dry adhesion than typical solids, yet their adhesion is increased >100-fold by applying 30 V to the CNTs. We characterize the scaling of adhesion with surface morphology, dielectric thickness, and applied voltage and demonstrate digital transfer printing of films of Ag nanowires, polymer and metal microparticles, and unpackaged light-emitting diodes.

Tunable and Reversible Substrate Stiffness Reveals a Dynamic Mechanosensitivity of Cardiomyocytes

New directions in material applications have allowed for the fresh insight into the coordination of biophysical cues and regulators. Although the role of the mechanical microenvironment on cell responses and mechanics is often studied, most analyses only consider static environments and behavior, however, cells and tissues are themselves dynamic materials that adapt in myriad ways to alterations in their environment. Here, we introduce an approach, through the addition of magnetic inclusions into a soft poly(dimethylsiloxane) elastomer, to fabricate a substrate that can be stiffened nearly instantaneously in the presence of cells through the use of a magnetic gradient to investigate short-term cellular responses to dynamic stiffening or softening. This substrate allows us to observe time-dependent changes, such as spreading, stress fiber formation, Yes-associated protein translocation, and sarcomere organization. The identification of temporal dynamic changes on a short time scale suggests that this technology can be more broadly applied to study targeted mechanisms of diverse biologic processes, including cell division, differentiation, tissue repair, pathological adaptations, and cell-death pathways. Our method provides a unique in vitro platform for studying the dynamic cell behavior by better mimicking more complex and realistic microenvironments. This platform will be amenable to future studies aimed at elucidating the mechanisms underlying mechanical sensing and signaling that influence cellular behaviors and interactions.

Toughening Nanoparticle Films via Polymer Infiltration and Confinement

Disordered nanoparticle films have significant technological applications as coatings and membranes. Unfortunately, their use to date has been limited by poor mechanical properties, notably low fracture toughness, which often results in brittle failure and cracking. We demonstrate that the fracture toughness of TiO₂ nanoparticle films can be increased by nearly an order of magnitude through infiltration of polystyrene into the film. The fracture properties of films with various polymer volume fractions were characterized via nanoindentation pillar-splitting tests. Significant toughening is observed even at low volume fractions of polymer, which allows the nanoparticle packing to be toughened while retaining porosity. Moreover, higher-molecular-weight polymers lead to greater toughening at low polymer volume fractions. The toughness enhancement observed in polymer-infiltrated nanoparticle films may be attributed to multiple factors, including an increase in the area and strength of interparticle contacts, deflection and blunting of cracks during failure, and confinement-induced polymer bridging of nanoparticles. Our findings demonstrate that polymer infiltration is a highly effective route for reinforcing nanoparticle packings while retaining porosity.

Ultrasensitive, Mechanically Responsive Optical Metasurfaces via Strain Amplification

Optical metasurfaces promise ultrathin, lightweight, miniaturized optical components with outstanding capabilities to manipulate the amplitude, phase, and polarization of light compared to conventional, bulk optics. The emergence of reconfigurable metasurfaces further integrates dynamic tunability with optical functionalities. Here, we report a structurally reconfigurable, optical metasurface constructed by integrating a plasmonic lattice array in the gap between a pair of symmetric microrods that serve to locally amplify the strain created on an elastomeric substrate by an external mechanical stimulus. The strain on the metasurface is amplified by a factor of 1.5-15.9 relative to the external strain by tailoring the microrod geometry. For the highest strain amplification geometry, the mechano-sensitivity of the optical responses of the plasmonic lattice array is a factor of 10 greater than that of state-of-the-art stretchable plasmonic resonator arrays. The spatial arrangement and therefore the optical response of the plasmonic lattice array are reversible, showing little hysteresis.

Structure-property relationships from universal signatures of plasticity in disordered solids

When deformed beyond their elastic limits, crystalline solids flow plastically via particle rearrangements localized around structural defects. Disordered solids also flow, but without obvious structural defects. We link structure to plasticity in disordered solids via a microscopic structural quantity, "softness," designed by machine learning to be maximally predictive of rearrangements. Experimental results and computations enabled us to measure the spatial correlations and strain response of softness, as well as two measures of plasticity: the size of rearrangements and the yield strain. All four quantities maintained remarkable commonality in their values for disordered packings of objects ranging from atoms to grains, spanning seven orders of magnitude in diameter and 13 orders of magnitude in elastic modulus. These commonalities link the spatial correlations and strain response of softness to rearrangement size and yield strain, respectively.

Shear Adhesion of Tapered Nanopillar Arrays

Tapered nanopillars with various cross sections, including cone-shaped, stepwise, and pencil-like structures (300 nm in diameter at the base of the pillars and 1.1 μm in height), are prepared from epoxy resin templated by nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes. The effect of pillar geometry on the shear adhesion behavior of these nanopillar arrays is investigated via sliding experiments in a nanoindentation system. In a previous study of arrays with the same geometry, it was shown that cone-shaped nanopillars exhibit the highest adhesion under normal loading while stepwise and pencil-like nanopillars exhibit lower normal adhesion strength due to significant deformation of the pillars that occurs with increasing indentation depth. Contrary to the previous studies, here, we show that pencil-like nanopillars exhibit the highest shear adhesion strength at all indentation depths among three types of nanopillar arrays and that the shear adhesion increases with greater indentation depth due to the higher bending stiffness and closer packing of the pencil-like nanopillar array. Finite element simulations are used to elucidate the deformation of the pillars during the sliding experiments and agree with the nanoindentation-based sliding measurements. The experiments and finite element simulations together demonstrate that the shape of the nanopillars plays a key role in shear adhesion and that the mechanism is quite different from that of adhesion under normal loading.

Spontaneous Periodic Delamination of Thin Films To Form Crack-Free Metal and Silicon Ribbons with High Stretchability

Design of electronic materials with high stretchability is of great importance for realizing soft and conformal electronics. One strategy of realizing stretchable metals and semiconductors is to exploit the buckling of materials bonded to elastomers. However, the level of stretchability is often limited by the cracking and fragmentation of the materials that occurs when constrained buckling occurs while bonded to the substrate. Here, we exploit a failure mechanism, spontaneous buckling-driven periodic delamination, to achieve high stretchability in metal and silicon films that are deposited on prestrained elastomer substrates. We find that both globally periodic buckle-delaminated pattern and ordered cracking patterns over large areas are observed in the spontaneously buckle-delaminated thin films. The geometry of periodic delaminated buckles and cracking periodicity can be predicted by theoretical models. By patterning the films into ribbons with widths smaller than the predicted cracking periodicity, we demonstrate the design of crack-free and spontaneous delaminated ribbons on highly prestrained elastomer substrates, which provides a high stretchability of about 120% and 400% in Si and Au ribbons, respectively. We find that the high stretchability is mainly attributed to the largely relaxed strain in the ribbons via spontaneous buckling-driven delamination, as made evident by the small maximum tensile strain in both ribbons, which is measured to be over 100 times smaller than that of the substrate prestrain.

Hybrid Surface Patterns Mimicking the Design of the Adhesive Toe Pad of Tree Frog

Biological materials achieve directional reinforcement with oriented assemblies of anisotropic building blocks. One such example is the nanocomposite structure of keratinized epithelium on the toe pad of tree frogs, in which hexagonal arrays of (soft) epithelial cells are crossed by densely packed and oriented (hard) keratin nanofibrils. Here, a method is established to fabricate arrays of tree-frog-inspired composite micropatterns composed of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micropillars embedded with polystyrene (PS) nanopillars. Adhesive and frictional studies of these synthetic materials reveal a benefit of the hierarchical and anisotropic design for both adhesion and friction, in particular, at high matrix-fiber interfacial strengths. The presence of PS nanopillars alters the stress distribution at the contact interface of micropillars and therefore enhances the adhesion and friction of the composite micropattern. The results suggest a design principle for bioinspired structural adhesives, especially for wet environments.

Tribochemical Wear of Diamond-Like Carbon-Coated Atomic Force Microscope Tips

Nanoscale wear is a critical issue that limits the performance of tip-based nanomanufacturing and nanometrology processes based on atomic force microscopy (AFM). Yet, a full scientific understanding of nanoscale wear processes remains in its infancy. It is therefore important to quantitatively understand the wear behavior of AFM tips. Tip wear is complex to understand due to adhesive forces and contact stresses that change substantially as the contact geometry evolves due to wear. Here, we present systematic characterization of the wear of commercial Si AFM tips coated with thin diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings. Wear of DLC was measured as a function of external loading and sliding distance. Transmission electron microscopy imaging, AFM-based adhesion measurements, and tip geometry estimation via inverse imaging were used to assess nanoscale wear and the contact conditions over the course of the wear tests. Gradual wear of DLC with sliding was observed in the experiments, and the tips evolved from initial paraboloidal shapes to flattened geometries. The wear rate is observed to increase with the average contact stress, but does not follow the classical wear law of Archard. A wear model based on the transition state theory, which gives an Arrhenius relationship between wear rate and normal stress, fits the experimental data well for low mean contact stresses (<0.3 GPa), yet it fails to describe the wear at higher stresses. The wear behavior over the full range of stresses is well described by a recently proposed multibond wear model that exhibits a change from Archard-like behavior at high stresses to a transition state theory description at lower stresses.

Multibond Model of Single-Asperity Tribochemical Wear at the Nanoscale

Single-asperity wear experiments and simulations have identified different regimes of wear including Eyring- and Archard-like behaviors. A multibond dynamics model has been developed based on the friction model of Filippov et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 135503 (2004)]. This new model captures both qualitatively distinct regimes of single-asperity wear under a unified theoretical framework. In this model, the interfacial bond formation, wearless rupture, and transfer of atoms are governed by three competing thermally activated processes. The Eyring regime holds under the conditions of low load and low adhesive forces; few bonds form between the asperity and the surface, and wear is a rare and rate-dependent event. As the normal stress increases, the Eyring behavior of wear rate breaks down. A nearly rate-independent regime arises under high load or high adhesive forces, in which wear becomes very nearly, but not precisely, proportional to sliding distance. In this restricted regime, the dependence of wear rate per unit contact area is nearly independent of the normal stress at the point of contact. In true contact between rough elastic surfaces, where contact area is expected to grow linearly with normal load, this would lead to behavior very similar to that described by the Archard equation. Detailed comparisons to experimental and molecular dynamics simulation investigations illustrate both Eyring and Archard regimes, and an intermediate crossover regime between the two.

Rough Adhesive Hydrogels (RAd gels) for Underwater Adhesion

In this work, underwater adhesion is achieved between biocompatible hydrogels and a suite of substrates. Surface roughness, which is typically detrimental for adhesion in air, is shown to be beneficial for underwater adhesion. Contact between the hydrogels with macroscopically flat substrates, and the resulting nonspecific chemical interaction, is facilitated by surface roughness, which enables drainage of the lubricating fluid layer. Hydrogel composition plays an important role in tuning the gel elasticity and interaction with the substrate. Hydrogels that are adhesive on two sides are synthesized for potential use as versatile adhesives in various applications.

Enhancing the stiffness of vertical graphene sheets through ion beam irradiation and fluorination

Many applications of graphene can benefit from the enhanced mechanical robustness of graphene-based components. We report how the stiffness of vertical graphene (VG) sheets is affected by the introduction of defects and fluorination, both separately and combined. The defects were created using a high-energy ion beam while fluorination was performed in a XeF₂ etching system. After ion bombardment alone, the average effective reduced modulus (E _r), equal to ∼4.9 MPa for the as-grown VG sheets, approximately doubled to ∼10.0 MPa, while fluorination alone almost quadrupled it to ∼18.4 MPa. The maximum average E _r of ∼32.4 MPa was achieved by repeatedly applying fluorination and ion bombardment. This increase can be explained by the formation of covalent bonds between the VG sheets due to ion bombardment, as well as the conversion from sp² to sp³ and increased corrugation due to fluorination.

Composite Microposts with High Dry Adhesion Strength

Interfaces with enhanced and tunable adhesion have applications in a broad range of fields, including microtransfer printing of semiconductors, grippers on robots, and component handling in manufacturing. Here, a composite post structure with a stiff core and a compliant shell is used to achieve an enhanced adhesion under normal loading. Loading the composite structure in shear significantly reduces the effective adhesion strength, thus providing tunability. The composite posts can be used as stamps in microtransfer printing processes or as building blocks of large-area tunable surfaces composed of arrays of posts. Experimental measurements on composite posts with diameters of 200 μm show a peak adhesion strength of 1.5 MPa, a 9 times enhancement in adhesion relative to a homogeneous post under normal loading, and also that the adhesion can be reduced by nearly a factor of 7 through the application of shear. The adhesion behavior of these composite structures was also examined using finite element analysis, which provides an understanding of the mechanics of detachment. Finally, the composite adhesive posts were used as stamps in a microtransfer printing process in which 5 μm thick silicon membranes were retrieved and subsequently printed.

Nanoporous Polymer-Infiltrated Nanoparticle Films with Uniform or Graded Porosity via Undersaturated Capillary Rise Infiltration

In this work, we present the fabrication of nanoporous polymer-infiltrated nanoparticle films (PINFs) with either uniform or graded porosity based on undersaturated capillary rise infiltration (UCaRI) and study the processing-structure-property relationship of these nanoporous PINFs. The UCaRI process involves first generating a bilayer film of a randomly packed nanoparticle layer atop a polymer layer, such that the volume of the polymer is less than the void volume in the nanoparticle packing. Subsequently, the bilayer film is annealed above the glass transition temperature of the polymer to induce polymer infiltration into the voids of the nanoparticle packing. Using in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry and molecular dynamics simulations, we observe that the polymer transport occurs in two stages: capillarity-induced infiltration, followed by gradual spreading, likely via surface diffusion. By varying the annealing time, UCaRI enables the generation of graded or uniform nanoporous PINFs. We also show that these nanoporous PINFs have tunable optical and mechanical properties, which can be tailored simply by changing the nanoparticle to polymer layer thickness ratio in the initial bilayer. The UCaRI approach is versatile and widely applicable to various polymers, which allows generation of nanoporous PINFs for multiple applications.

Tuning the mechanical properties of vertical graphene sheets through atomic layer deposition

We report the fabrication and characterization of graphene nanostructures with mechanical properties that are tuned by conformal deposition of alumina. Vertical graphene (VG) sheets, also called carbon nanowalls (CNWs), were grown on copper foil substrates using a radio-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RF-PECVD) technique and conformally coated with different thicknesses of alumina (Al2O3) using atomic layer deposition (ALD). Nanoindentation was used to characterize the mechanical properties of pristine and alumina-coated VG sheets. Results show a significant increase in the effective Young's modulus of the VG sheets with increasing thickness of deposited alumina. Deposition of only a 5 nm thick alumina layer on the VG sheets nearly triples the effective Young's modulus of the VG structures. Both energy absorption and strain recovery were lower in VG sheets coated with alumina than in pure VG sheets (for the same peak force). This may be attributed to the increase in bending stiffness of the VG sheets and the creation of connections between the sheets after ALD deposition. These results demonstrate that the mechanical properties of VG sheets can be tuned over a wide range through conformal atomic layer deposition, facilitating the use of VG sheets in applications where specific mechanical properties are needed.

Modification of mechanical properties of vertical graphene sheets via fluorination

Fluorination can significantly enhance the reduced modulus of surfaces comprised of vertical graphene sheets.

Orthogonal Control of Stability and Tunable Dry Adhesion by Tailoring the Shape of Tapered Nanopillar Arrays

Tapered nanopillar structures of different cross-sectional geometries including cone-, pencil-like, and stepwise are prepared from anodized aluminum oxide templates. The shape effect on the adhesion strength is investigated in experiments and simulation. Cone-shaped nanopillars are highly bendable under load and can recover after unloading, thus, warranting high adhesion strength, 34 N cm(-2) . The pencil-like and stepwise nano-pillars are, however, easily fractured and are not recoverable under the same conditions.

Wear biomechanics in the slicing dentition of the giant horned dinosaur Triceratops

Herbivorous reptiles rarely evolve occluding dentitions that allow for the mastication (chewing) of plant matter. Conversely, most herbivorous mammals have occluding teeth with complex tissue architectures that self-wear to complex morphologies for orally processing plants. Dinosaurs stand out among reptiles in that several lineages acquired the capacity to masticate. In particular, the horned ceratopsian dinosaurs, among the most successful Late Cretaceous dinosaurian lineages, evolved slicing dentitions for the exploitation of tough, bulky plant matter. We show how Triceratops, a 9-m-long ceratopsian, and its relatives evolved teeth that wore during feeding to create fullers (recessed central regions on cutting blades) on the chewing surfaces. This unique morphology served to reduce friction during feeding. It was achieved through the evolution of a complex suite of osseous dental tissues rivaling the complexity of mammalian dentitions. Tribological (wear) properties of the tissues are preserved in ~66-million-year-old teeth, allowing the creation of a sophisticated three-dimensional biomechanical wear model that reveals how the complexes synergistically wore to create these implements. These findings, along with similar discoveries in hadrosaurids (duck-billed dinosaurs), suggest that tissue-mediated changes in dental morphology may have played a major role in the remarkable ecological diversification of these clades and perhaps other dinosaurian clades capable of mastication.

Polymer nanocomposite films with extremely high nanoparticle loadings via capillary rise infiltration (CaRI)

Polymer nanocomposite films (PNCFs) with extremely high concentrations of nanoparticles are important components in energy storage and conversion devices and also find use as protective coatings in various applications. PNCFs with high loadings of nanoparticles, however, are difficult to prepare because of the poor processability of polymer-nanoparticle mixtures with high concentrations of nanoparticles even at an elevated temperature. This problem is exacerbated when anisotropic nanoparticles are the desired filler materials. Here we report a straightforward method for generating PNCFs with extremely high loadings of nanoparticles. Our method is based on what we call capillary rise infiltration (CaRI) of polymer into a dense packing of nanoparticles. CaRI consists of two simple steps: (1) the preparation of a two-layer film, consisting of a porous layer of nanoparticles and a layer of polymer and (2) annealing of the bilayer structure above the temperature that imparts mobility to the polymer (e.g., glass transition of the polymer). The second step leads to polymer infiltration into the interstices of the nanoparticle layer, reminiscent of the capillary rise of simple fluid into a narrow capillary or a packing of granules. We use in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry and a three-layer Cauchy model to follow the capillary rise of polystyrene into the random network of nanoparticles. The infiltration of polystyrene into a densely packed TiO2 nanoparticle layer is shown to follow the classical Lucas-Washburn type of behaviour. We also demonstrate that PNCFs with densely packed anisotropic TiO2 nanoparticles can be readily generated by spin coating anisotropic TiO2 nanoparticles atop a polystyrene film and subsequently thermally annealing the bilayer film. We show that CaRI leads to PNCFs with modulus, hardness and scratch resistance that are far superior to the properties of films of the component materials. In addition, CaRI fills in cracks that may exist in the nanoparticle layer, leading to the healing of nanoparticle films and the formation of defect-free PNCFs. We believe this approach is widely applicable for the preparation of PNCFs with extremely high loading of nanoparticles and potentially provides a unique approach to study capillarity-induced transport of polymers under extreme confinement.

Atomic-scale wear of amorphous hydrogenated carbon during intermittent contact: a combined study using experiment, simulation, and theory

In this study, we explore the wear behavior of amplitude modulation atomic force microscopy (AM-AFM, an intermittent-contact AFM mode) tips coated with a common type of diamond-like carbon, amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H), when scanned against an ultra-nanocrystalline diamond (UNCD) sample both experimentally and through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Finite element analysis is utilized in a unique way to create a representative geometry of the tip to be simulated in MD. To conduct consistent and quantitative experiments, we apply a protocol that involves determining the tip-sample interaction geometry, calculating the tip-sample force and normal contact stress over the course of the wear test, and precisely quantifying the wear volume using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy imaging. The results reveal gradual wear of a-C:H with no sign of fracture or plastic deformation. The wear rate of a-C:H is consistent with a reaction-rate-based wear theory, which predicts an exponential dependence of the rate of atom removal on the average normal contact stress. From this, kinetic parameters governing the wear process are estimated. MD simulations of an a-C:H tip, whose radius is comparable to the tip radii used in experiments, making contact with a UNCD sample multiple times exhibit an atomic-level removal process. The atomistic wear events observed in the simulations are correlated with under-coordinated atomic species at the contacting surfaces.

Simulated adhesion between realistic hydrocarbon materials: effects of composition, roughness, and contact point

The work of adhesion is an interfacial materials property that is often extracted from atomic force microscope (AFM) measurements of the pull-off force for tips in contact with flat substrates. Such measurements rely on the use of continuum contact mechanics models, which ignore the atomic structure and contain other assumptions that can be challenging to justify from experiments alone. In this work, molecular dynamics is used to examine work of adhesion values obtained from simulations that mimic such AFM experiments and to examine variables that influence the calculated work of adhesion. Ultrastrong carbon-based materials, which are relevant to high-performance AFM and nano- and micromanufacturing applications, are considered. The three tips used in the simulations were composed of amorphous carbon terminated with hydrogen (a-C-H), and ultrananocrystalline diamond with and without hydrogen (UNCD-H and UNCD, respectively). The model substrate materials used were amorphous carbon with hydrogen termination (a-C-H) and without hydrogen (a-C); ultrananocrystalline diamond with (UNCD-H) and without hydrogen (UNCD); and the (111) face of single crystal diamond with (C(111)-H) and without a monolayer of hydrogen (C(111)). The a-C-H tip was found to have the lowest work of adhesion on all substrates examined, followed by the UNCD-H and then the UNCD tips. This trend is attributable to a combination of roughness on both the tip and sample, the degree of alignment of tip and substrate atoms, and the surface termination. Continuum estimates of the pull-off forces were approximately 2-5 times larger than the MD value for all but one tip-sample pair.

Mechanics of interaction and atomic-scale wear of amplitude modulation atomic force microscopy probes

Wear is one of the main factors that hinders the performance of probes for atomic force microscopy (AFM), including for the widely used amplitude modulation (AM-AFM) mode. Unfortunately, a comprehensive scientific understanding of nanoscale wear is lacking. We have developed a protocol for conducting consistent and quantitative AM-AFM wear experiments. The protocol involves controlling the tip-sample interaction regime during AM-AFM scanning, determining the tip-sample contact geometry, calculating the peak repulsive force and normal stress over the course of the wear test, and quantifying the wear volume using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy imaging. The peak repulsive tip-sample interaction force is estimated from a closed-form equation accompanied by an effective tip radius measurement procedure, which combines transmission electron microscopy and blind tip reconstruction. The contact stress is estimated by applying Derjaguin-Müller-Toporov contact mechanics model and also numerically solving a general contact mechanics model recently developed for the adhesive contact of arbitrary axisymmetric punch shapes. We discuss the important role that the assumed tip shape geometry plays in calculating both the interaction forces and the contact stresses. Contact stresses are significantly affected by the tip geometry while the peak repulsive force is mainly determined by experimentally controlled parameters, specifically, the free oscillation amplitude and amplitude ratio. The applicability of this protocol is demonstrated experimentally by assessing the performance of diamond-like carbon-coated and silicon-nitride-coated silicon probes scanned over ultrananocrystalline diamond substrates in repulsive mode AM-AFM. There is no sign of fracture or plastic deformation in the case of diamond-like carbon; wear could be characterized as a gradual atom-by-atom process. In contrast, silicon nitride wears through removal of the cluster of atoms and plastic deformation.

"Soft Si": effective stiffness of supported crystalline nanomembranes

We investigate the effective mechanical response of a layered system consisting of a thin crystalline sheet (nanomembrane) on a bulk substrate, with a high elastic mismatch (in the range of 5 to 9 orders of magnitude) between the stiff sheet and the compliant substrate. Using finite-element mechanics models and indentation experiments ranging from micro to nano, we show that the mismatch between the sheet and substrate elastic moduli, the length scale of deformation, and the sheet thickness all play a significant role in defining the effective stiffness of the layered system. For a wide range of indenter sizes, the mechanical response of the composite system is indistinguishable from that of the compliant substrate. In particular, at large indenter sizes, the mechanical response of the layered system is dominated by that of the compliant substrate. For decreasing indenter sizes, the effective stiffness of the layered structure reaches a finite value different from either the one expected for the compliant substrate or for a bulk crystal of the same material as the stiff top membrane.

Design of hydrodynamically confined microfluidics: controlling flow envelope and pressure

Closed-channel microfluidic devices are widely used in a number of chemical and biological applications; however, it is often difficult to interact with samples, such as cells, that are enclosed inside them. Hydrodynamically confined microflows (HCMs) allow microfluidic-type flows to be generated in open liquid environments, such as Petri dishes, thus greatly increasing the flexibility of microfluidic approaches. HCMs have previously been used for protein patterning and selective cell treatment applications, but the underlying fluid mechanics is not fully understood. Here, we examine the effect of device geometry and flow parameters on the properties of the flow envelope and pressure drop of several two-port HCM devices using a combination of experiments and modeling. A three-port device, which allows for different flow envelope shapes to be generated, is also analyzed. The experimental results agree well with the 3-D computational fluid dynamics simulations, with the majority of the measurements within 10% of the simulations. The results presented provide a framework for understanding the fluid mechanics of HCMs and will aid in the design of HCM devices for a broad range of applications.

Bonding of Bulk Piezoelectric Material to Silicon Using a Gold-Tin Eutectic Bond

A class of MEMS devices, which utilizes microfabrication technology and bulk piezoelectric material, is currently being developed to produce high power density transducers. A thin-film gold-tin eutectic solder bond has been developed to bond electrically and mechanically bulk piezoelectric elements to microfabricated silicon structures in these devices. A 4.3 [.proportional]m thick multilayer film structure, consisting of a titanium adhesion layer, a platinum diffusion barrier, a gold-tin (80 wt.% Au - 20 wt.% Sn) alloy layer, and a pure gold capping layer, was sputter deposited on the piezoelectric components to be bonded. Bonding was accomplished by mating the piezoelectric components with silicon components metallized with a titanium-platinum-gold multilayer film and heating to approximately 300°C in a reducing atmosphere. The bonding technology allows thin, electrically conductive bonds to be formed between dissimilar materials with minimal amounts of applied pressure during bonding. Successful bonding has been achieved between single crystal silicon and polycrystalline lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT-5H) as well as between silicon and single crystal lead zinc niobate-lead titanate (PZN-PT). The process was optimized to produce mechanically robust, void-free bonds. The absence of voids was verified through scanning electron microscope examinations of bond cross-sections. Tensile tests conducted on representative structures indicated that the strength of the bond was limited by the strength of the titanium – PZT-5H interface.

Measurement of single-cell adhesion strength using a microfluidic assay

Despite the importance of cell adhesion in numerous physiological, pathological, and biomaterial-related responses, our understanding of adhesion strength at the cell-substrate interface and its relationship to cell function remains incomplete. One reason for this deficit is a lack of accessible experimental approaches that quantify adhesion strength at the single-cell level and facilitate large numbers of tests. The current work describes the design, fabrication, and use of a microfluidic-based method for single-cell adhesion strength measurements. By applying a monotonically increasing flow rate in a microfluidic channel in combination with video microscopy, the adhesion strength of individual NIH3T3 fibroblasts cultured for 24 h on various surfaces was measured. The small height of the channel allows high shear stresses to be generated under laminar conditions, allowing strength measurements on well-spread, strongly adhered cells that cannot be characterized in most conventional assays. This assay was used to quantify the relationship between morphological characteristics and adhesion strength for individual well-spread cells. Cell adhesion strength was found to be positively correlated with both cell area and circularity. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed to examine the role of cell geometry in determining the actual stress applied to the cell. Use of this method to examine adhesion at the single-cell level allows the detachment of strongly-adhered cells under a highly-controllable, uniform loading to be directly observed and will enable the characterization of biological events and relationships that cannot currently be achieved using existing methods.

Method for characterizing nanoscale wear of atomic force microscope tips

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful tool for studying tribology (adhesion, friction, and lubrication) at the nanoscale and is emerging as a critical tool for nanomanufacturing. However, nanoscale wear is a key limitation of conventional AFM probes that are made of silicon and silicon nitride (SiNx). Here we present a method for systematically quantifying tip wear, which consists of sequential contact-mode AFM scans on ultrananocrystalline diamond surfaces with intermittent measurements of the tip properties using blind reconstruction, adhesion force measurements, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). We demonstrate direct measurement of volume loss over the wear test and agreement between blind reconstruction and TEM imaging. The geometries of various types of tips were monitored over a scanning distance of approximately 100 mm. The results show multiple failure mechanisms for different materials, including nanoscale fracture of a monolithic Si tip upon initial engagement with the surface, film failure of a SiNx-coated Si tip, and gradual, progressive wear of monolithic SiNx tips consistent with atom-by-atom attrition. Overall, the method provides a quantitative and systematic process for examining tip degradation and nanoscale wear, and the experimental results illustrate the multiple mechanisms that may lead to tip failure.

Preventing nanoscale wear of atomic force microscopy tips through the use of monolithic ultrananocrystalline diamond probes

Nanoscale wear is a key limitation of conventional atomic force microscopy (AFM) probes that results in decreased resolution, accuracy, and reproducibility in probe-based imaging, writing, measurement, and nanomanufacturing applications. Diamond is potentially an ideal probe material due to its unrivaled hardness and stiffness, its low friction and wear, and its chemical inertness. However, the manufacture of monolithic diamond probes with consistently shaped small-radius tips has not been previously achieved. The first wafer-level fabrication of monolithic ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) probes with <5-nm grain sizes and smooth tips with radii of 30-40 nm is reported, which are obtained through a combination of microfabrication and hot-filament chemical vapor deposition. Their nanoscale wear resistance under contact-mode scanning conditions is compared with that of conventional silicon nitride (SiN(x)) probes of similar geometry at two different relative humidity levels (approximately 15 and approximately 70%). While SiN(x) probes exhibit significant wear that further increases with humidity, UNCD probes show little measurable wear. The only significant degradation of the UNCD probes observed in one case is associated with removal of the initial seed layer of the UNCD film. The results show the potential of a new material for AFM probes and demonstrate a systematic approach to studying wear at the nanoscale.

Control of three-dimensional island growth with mechanically responsive single-crystal nanomembrane substrates

Freestanding, ultracompliant crystalline-sheet substrates provide a new opportunity to control the growth of strained epitaxial films. Three-dimensional SiGe islands grown on thin silicon nanomembranes self-order as the strain field induced by initial island growth guides nucleation of subsequent islands on the opposite surface. A mechanics analysis explains this unique growth mode, possible only on ultracompliant substrates. The ordering can be tailored by manipulating the thickness and elastic properties of the membrane.

Viscoelasticity of the human red blood cell

We report here the first measurements of the complex modulus of the isolated red blood cell (RBC). Because the RBC is often larger than capillary diameter, important determinants of microcirculatory function are RBC deformability and its changes with pathologies, such as sickle cell disease and malaria. A functionalized ferrimagnetic microbead was attached to the membrane of healthy RBC and then subjected to an oscillatory magnetic field. The resulting torque caused cell deformation. From the oscillatory forcing and resulting bead motions, which were tracked optically, we computed elastic and frictional moduli, g′ and g‴, respectively, from 0.1 to 100 Hz. The g′ was nearly frequency independent and dominated the response at all but the highest frequencies measured. Over three frequency decades, g‴ increased as a power law with an exponent of 0.64, a result not predicted by any simple model. These data suggest that RBC relaxation times that have been reported previously, and any models that rest upon them, are artifactual; the artifact, we suggest, arises from forcing to an exponential fit data of limited temporal duration. A linear range of response was observed, but, as forcing amplitude increased, nonlinearities became clearly apparent. A finite element model suggests that membrane bending was localized to the vicinity of the bead and dominated membrane shear. While the mechanisms accounting for these RBC dynamics remain unclear, methods described here establish new avenues for the exploration of connections among the mechanical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the RBC in health and disease.