Focal adhesions are clusters of specific receptor-ligand bonds that link an animal cell to an extracellular matrix. To understand the mechanical responses of focal adhesions, here we develop a stochastic-elasticity model of a periodic array of adhesion clusters between two dissimilar elastic media subjected to an inclined tensile stress, in which stochastic descriptions of molecular bonds and e...

The origins for abrupt adhesion loss at a critical relative humidity (RH) for polymeric adhesives bonded to inorganic surfaces have been explored using a model poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) film on glass. The interfacial and bulk water concentrations within the polymer film as a function of D 2O partial pressure were quantified using neutron reflectivity. Adhesion strength of these PMMA/SiO ...

One of the most important features of the interface between an oxide and a metal is the sharp change in dielectric constant between the two materials. This suggests that the stabilisation of charges (lattice ions and defect centres) in the non-metal by the polarisation of the metal may contribute strongly to the interfacial adhesion. This effect can be treated in classical electrostatics by the...

We study theoretically the force of adhesion of pinned liquid drops in contact with supersolvophobic surfaces. We develop a method to calculate the contact and excess surface areas vs compression of the drops against surfaces characterized by an effective interfacial energy in the Cassie-Baxter wetting regime. We find that a 9° difference in contact angle can increase the force of adhesion by a...

We have performed density functional calculations to investigate the adhesion and electronic structure at interfaces between Al and the refractory transition metal nitrides/carbides VN and VC in order to understand the significance of the ceramic’s metalloid component upon interfacial properties. We find that for both systems the preferred bonding site places the metal interfacial atoms above t...

Mussel (Mytilus californianus) adhesion to marine surfaces involves an intricate and adaptive synergy of molecules and spatio-temporal processes. Although the molecules, such as mussel foot proteins (mfps), are well characterized, deposition details remain vague and speculative. Developing methods for the precise surveillance of conditions that apply during mfp deposition would aid both in unde...

Peeling of a viscoelastic adhesive from a solid substrate poses a wonderful problem of polymer flow. When the adhesive is peeled, it is also stretched in a direction normal to the substrate. The concomitant Poisson contraction creates a pressure gradient and thus induces a shear flow in the adhesive close to the delamination front. Earlier it was pointed out that the strength of viscoelastic ad...

This article presents a multiscale study on adhesive interactions between graphene and its substrates. First, van der Waals (vdW) interactions between graphene and a SiO2 substrate are studied by fi rst-principle density functional theory (DFT) calculations with dispersion corrections. It is found that the interaction strength is strongly infl uenced by changes of the SiO2 surface structures du...