Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Tulane University , New Orleans, Louisiana 70118, United States.
Vector-Borne Infectious Disease Research Center, Tulane University , New Orleans, Louisiana 70112, United States.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Jul 19;9(28):24373-24380. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b06659. Epub 2017 Jul 6.
Insects and small animals capable of adhering reversibly to a variety of surfaces employ the unique design of the distal part of their legs. In the case of mosquitoes, their feet are composed of thousands of micro- and nanoscale protruding structures, which impart superhydrophobic properties. Previous research has shown that the superhydrophobic nature of the feet allows mosquitoes to land on water, which is necessary for their reproduction cycle. Here, we show that van der Waals interactions are the main adhesion mechanism employed by mosquitoes to adhere to various surfaces. We further demonstrate that the judicious creation of surface roughness on an opposing surface can increase the adhesion strength because of the increased number of surface elements interacting with the setae through multiple contact points. Although van der Waals forces are shown to be the predominant mechanism by which mosquitoes adhere to surfaces, capillary forces can also contribute to the total adhesion force when the opposing surface is hydrophilic and under humid conditions. These fundamental properties can potentially be applied in the development of superior Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs), which represent one of the most effective methods to mitigate mosquito-transmitted infectious diseases such as Malaria, Filaria, Zika, and Dengue.
昆虫和能够可逆地附着在各种表面上的小动物采用其腿部末端的独特设计。就蚊子而言，它们的脚由数千个微观和纳米级的突出结构组成，这些结构赋予了它们超疏水的特性。先前的研究表明，脚部的超疏水性质使蚊子能够在水上着陆，这是它们繁殖周期所必需的。在这里，我们表明，范德华相互作用是蚊子用于附着各种表面的主要粘附机制。我们进一步证明，在对向表面上明智地创建表面粗糙度可以由于通过多个接触点与刚毛相互作用的表面元素数量的增加而增加粘附强度。尽管已经表明范德华力是蚊子附着在表面上的主要机制，但当对向表面亲水且处于潮湿条件下时，毛细作用力也可以有助于总粘附力。这些基本特性可能会应用于卓越的长效杀虫网（LLINs）的开发中，LLINs 是减轻疟疾、丝虫病、寨卡病毒和登革热等蚊子传播传染病的最有效方法之一。
