Predicting the Electrical, Mechanical, and Geometric Contributions to Soft Electroadhesives through Fracture Mechanics

Electroadhesion is the modulation of adhesive forcesthrough electrostaticinteractions and has potential applications in a number of next-generationtechnologies. Recent efforts have focused on using electroadhesionin soft robotics, haptics, and biointerfaces that often involve compliantmaterials and nonplanar geometries. Current models for electroadhesionprovide limited insight on other contributions that are known to influenceadhesion performance, such as geometry and material properties. Thisstudy presents a fracture mechanics framework for understanding electroadhesionthat incorporates geometric and electrostatic contributions for softelectroadhesives. We demonstrate the validity of this model with twomaterial systems that exhibit disparate electroadhesive mechanisms,indicating that this formalism is applicable to a variety of electroadhesives.The results show the importance of material compliance and geometricconfinement in enhancing electroadhesive performance and providingstructure-property relationships for designing electroadhesivedevices.

Automated summary

Electroadhesion is a technology that modulates adhesive forces through electrostatic interactions and has potential applications in next-generation technologies. This study presents a fracture mechanics framework for understanding electroadhesion in soft materials, incorporating geometric and electrostatic contributions. The results emphasize the importance of material compliance and geometric confinement in enhancing electroadhesive performance and designing electroadhesive devices.