wetability of biocompatible polymers can be improved by plasma surface modification. the purpose of this study was to surface modify an experimental poly (dimethylsiloxane) rubber (pdms) material in order to improve its wetability and biocompatibility. surface properties of the pdms were characterized using contact angles measurement for wetability analysis. samples of experimental silicone rub...

Compliance in robot hands has been shown to enhance grasping performance and robustness. This paper presents analysis and experiments to show that compliance also enables measurement of important object parameters using simple joint angle sensors. Compliance reduces control requirements so that it is easy to trace object surfaces, while joint angle measurements can reveal contact locations and ...

The surface hydrophobicity of nine Bacillus subtilis strains in different states (spores, vegetative cells, and dead cells) was assessed by water contact angle measurements, hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) and bacterial adhesion to hydrocarbon (BATH). Electrokinetic properties of B. subtilis strains were characterized by zeta potential measurements and found to differ appreciably a...

Mathematical theory predicts that small changes in container shape or in contact angle can give rise to large shifts of liquid in a microgravity environment. This phenomenon was investigated in the Interface Configuration Experiment on board the NASA USML-2 Space Shuttle flight. The experiment’s “double proboscis” containers were designed to strike a balance between conflicting requirements of ...

The profiles of a spreading wetting film are computed taking into account intermolecular forces and introducing a kinetic slip condition at a molecular cut-off distance. This eliminates the stress singularity, so that both “true” and “visible” contact angles are defined unequivocally. The “true” contact angle at the cut-off distance depends on the slip length as well as on the edge propagation ...

The dissolution dynamics of microscopic oil droplets (less than 1 μm in height, i.e. nanodroplets) on a hydrophobilized silicon surface in water was experimentally studied. The lateral diameter was monitored using confocal microscopy, whereas the contact angle was measured by (disruptive) droplet polymerisation of the droplet. In general, we observed the droplets to dissolve in a mixed mode, i....

Electrowetting on dielectric-coated electrodes involves two independently observable phenomena: (i) the well-known voltage dependence of the apparent contact angle and (ii) a central electromechanical force that can be exploited to move and manipulate small liquid volumes on a substrate. The electromechanical force does not depend upon field-mediated changes of the contact angle; it is operativ...

Small changes in container shape or in contact angle can give rise to large shifts of liquid in a microgravity environment. These shifts can be used as a basis for accurate determination of contact angle. We describe container shapes, designed for a forthcoming USMG2 experiment, in the form of a circular cylinder with two diametrically opposed “canonical proboscis” protrusions. Computational st...

Light scattering was used to measure the time-dependent loss of air entrapped within a submerged microporous hydrophobic surface subjected to different environmental conditions. The loss of trapped air resulted in a measurable decrease in surface reflectivity and the kinetics of the process was determined in real time and compared to surface properties, such as porosity and morphology. The ligh...

      Wetability of biocompatible polymers can be improved by plasma surface modification. The purpose of this study was to surface modify an experimental poly (dimethylsiloxane) rubber (PDMS) material in order to improve its wetability and biocompatibility. Surface properties of the PDMS were characterized using contact angles measurement for wetability analysis. Samples of experimental silico...