Active Switching of Adhesion in a Film-Terminated Fibrillar Structure

We show that a structure with a fibrillar surface terminated by a continuous film can be switched between two metastable states. The first state, in which the film is stretched between fibrils, has previously been shown to have strongly enhanced adhesion compared to an unstructured flat control. In the second state, the film collapses onto the substrate between fibrils and is held up away from the substrate at the fibrils, resulting in a surface with a periodic array of bumps with much reduced adhesion. The interface can be switched mechanically between these two states repeatedly, thus providing a means for active control of surface mechanical properties. We develop a simple model that shows what combination of parameters, such as film thickness, dimensions, and spacing between fibrils, is required for such an architecture to be metastable in each of these two states.