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 mag- nitude by adjusting a dimensionless surface pattern parameter k defined as a/(a+b), where a is the dia- meter 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.
A microtribometer is used to measure and compare pull-off forces and friction forces exerted on （a） micro-dimpled silicon surfaces, （b） bare silicon surfaces, and （c） octadecyltrichlorosilane （OTS） treated silicon surfaces at different relative humidity （RH） levels separately. It is found that above a critical RH level, the capillary pull-off force increases abruptly and that the micro-dimple textured surface has a lower critical RH value as well as a higher pull-off force value than the other two surfaces. A micro topography parameter, namely sidewall area ratio, is found to play a major role in controlling the capillary pull-off force. Furthermore, micro-dimpled silicon surface is also proved to be not sensitive to variation in RH level, and can realize a stable and decreased friction coefficient compared with un-textured silicon surfaces. The reservoir-like function of micro dimples is considered to weaken or avoid the breakage effect of liquid bridges at different RH levels, thereby maintaining a stable frictional behaviour.
The friction and wear properties of silicon surface covered with octadecyltrichlorosilane （OTS） self-assembled monolayers （SAMs） were investigated by a UMT-2 microtribometer with and without water as lubricant, and then compared with that of bare silicon surface. Dry friction measurement results show that OTS SAMs have a very low friction coefficient compared to bare silicon surface under lower sliding velocity and normal contact load. However, heavy wear occurs on OTS SAMs under higher contact stress and sliding velocity. Under water lubrication, OTS SAMs can prevent wear obviously and meanwhile present low coefficient of friction even under high velocities, The improved frictional and anti-wear property on OTS SAMs surface is attributed to the hydrophobic property of OTS and hydrodynamic effect of water. Furthermore, a wear critical phase diagram for OTS SAMs with and without water was proposed, which indicates that OTS SAMs working under water lubrication owns a wider range of available load and velocity to reduce friction and prevent wear.
