TY - JOUR
T1 - How things get stuck
T2 - Kinetics, elastohydrodynamics, and soft adhesion
AU - Mani, Madhav
AU - Gopinath, Arvind
AU - Mahadevan, L.
PY - 2012/5/30
Y1 - 2012/5/30
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.226104
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.226104
M3 - Article
C2 - 23003628
AN - SCOPUS:84861830761
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 108
JO - Physical review letters
JF - Physical review letters
IS - 22
M1 - 226104
ER -