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On the Adhesion performance of a single electrospun fiber

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Abstract

The micro- and nano-scale fibrillar structures found on the feet of spiders and geckos function as adhesion devices which allow them to adhere to both molecularly smooth and rough surfaces. This adhesion has been argued to arise from intermolecular forces, such as van der Waals (vdW) force, acting at the interface between any two materials in contact. Thus, it is possible to mimic their adhesion using synthetic nanostructured analogs. Herein, we report the first successful pull-off force measurements on a single electrospun fiber and show the potential of using electrospinning to fabricate adhesive analogs. A single fiber is glued to the atomic force microscope cantilever, and its adhesion to a metal substrate is studied by recording the pull-off force/displacement curves. The measured adhesive force of ~18 nN matches closely that of their biological counterparts. Similar to natural structures, the adhesive mechanism of these electrospun structures is controlled by vdW interactions.

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Notes

  1. With the second scenario, during the transition from peeling to pull-off the fiber end may not be in full contact and the pull-off force recorded is 5 nN. This force is less than half of that predicted by Eq. 2.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Australian Research Council (ARC) for the support of this project. AB was appointed as Research Fellow by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University for this study. AB also acknowledges the financial support of SUTD start-up grant (SRG-EPD-2013-055).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Advanced Materials Technology (CAMT), School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering J07, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

    Avinash Baji & Yiu-Wing Mai

  2. Engineering Product Development (EPD) Pillar, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), 20 Dover Drive, Singapore, 138682, Singapore

    Avinash Baji

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Limin Zhou, Zhifang Yang & Haimin Yao

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  1. Avinash Baji
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  2. Limin Zhou
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Correspondence to Avinash Baji.

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Baji, A., Zhou, L., Mai, YW. et al. On the Adhesion performance of a single electrospun fiber. Appl. Phys. A 118, 51–56 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8865-6

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