How things get stuck: Kinetics, elastohydrodynamics, and soft adhesion

Madhav Mani, Arvind Gopinath, L. Mahadevan*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

We consider the sticking of a fluid-immersed colloidal particle with a substrate coated by polymeric tethers, a model for soft, wet adhesion in many natural and artificial systems. Our theory accounts for the kinetics of binding, the elasticity of the tethers, and the hydrodynamics of fluid drainage between the colloid and the substrate, characterized by three dimensionless parameters: the ratio of the viscous drainage time to the kinetics of binding, the ratio of elastic to thermal energies, and the size of the particle relative to the height of the polymer brush. For typical experimental parameters and discrete families of tethers, we find that adhesion proceeds via punctuated steps, where rapid transitions to increasingly bound states are separated by slow aging transients, consistent with recent observations. Our results also suggest that the bound particle is susceptible to fluctuation-driven instabilities parallel to the substrate.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number226104
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume108
Issue number22
DOIs
StatePublished - May 30 2012

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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