Controllable and switchable capillary adhesion mechanism for bio-adhesive pads: Effect of micro patterns

Some insects and animals, such as bugs, grasshoppers and tree frogs, realize their efficient adhesion mechanism to glass surface, wall and ceiling by injecting a wetting liquid thin film into the pad-substrate contact area. Their ability to control adhesion (attaching or detaching from a surface) is in many cases connected to the contact geometry and surface patterns of their attachment pads. This paper focuses on the dependence of the capillary adhesion (wet adhesion) on the micro patterns of the bio-adhesive pads. The objective is to reveal the possible mechanism for a bio-adhesive pad to control capillary force through adjusting its micro-scale surface pattern and topography. A capillary adhesion force model is built up taking account of the combined role of micro-dimple geometry as well as the wetting behavior of the confined liquid thin film. Calculated results of the apparent contact angle on the regularly micro-dimpled surfaces are compared with and in good agreement with the experimental measurements. Simulation of the capillary adhesion force reveals that it is controllable in a large magnitude by adjusting a dimensionless surface pattern parameter k defined as a/(a+b), where a is the diameter of micro dimple, and (a+b) is the side length of one pattern cell. When adjusting the parameter k more than 0.75, the capillary adhesion force could be switchable from attractive to repulsive. This effect of micro patterns on the interfacial capillary force is proved to be dominant when the pad-substrate clearance decreases to the nano/micrometer scale. These results indicate that a controllable and switchable capillary adhesive mechanism might be utilized by a living insect or animal to realize its stable adhesion and quick releasing movement through adjusting the micro-pattern topography of its bio-adhesive pad.