Self-organized Adhesion and Pattern Formation in Elastic
Solid Films
Ashutosh Sharma
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur-208016
This talk will summarize some of our new results on the role
of adhesion in pattern formation (1) and the role of patterns in
adhesion (2) in soft elastic solid films. The adhesive contact
induced patterns can be aligned and modulated (3) by varying the
stamp separation distance, by using a patterned template, by a
simple shear movement of the stamp, by use of multilayers or by
application of an external e-field. Further, adhesive strength
can be greatly modulated by surface or interior patterning of a
soft elastic film (2). These results show an intimate relation
between adhesion and structure at a soft interface and point to
potential technological applications in self-organized
meso-patterning (3) and fabrication of strong, reusable
"structural" adhesives (2). The structural adhesives harness
thermodynamic factors, rather than the kinetic factors such as
visco-elasticity, to modulate the adhesive strength.
References
Contact Instability in adhesion and debonding of thin elastic
films, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 018303 (2006), and the earlier
references therein to the phenomenon of the elastic contact
instability.
Micro-fluidic adhesion induced by sub-surface
micro-structures, Science, 318, 258-261 (2007).
Electric field induced instabilities and morphological phase
transitions in soft elastic films, Phys. Rev. E 77, 031604
(2008); Contact instability of elastic bilayers: miniaturization
of instability patterns, Adv. Func. Mat. 17, 2356-2364 (2007);
Contact instability of thin elastic films on patterned
substrates, J. Chem. Phys. 127, 064703 (2007); Self-organized
meso-patterning of soft solids by controlled adhesion: elastic
contact lithography, J. Nanosci. Nanotech. 7, 1744 (2007);
Elastic contact induced self-organized patterning of hydrogel
films, Macromolecules 39, 3365 (2006); Control of self-organized
contact instability and patterning in soft elastic films,
Langmuir 22, 7066 (2006); Electric field controlled surface
instabilities in soft elastic films, Adv. Materials 18, 660
(2006).
