Kim Junhyung, Kim Seungbeom, Yun Taehyun, Kim Jeong Hyeon, Son ChangHee, Lee Yongseok, Kim Keehoon, Lee Han Eol, Kim Namjung, Kim Seok
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Republic of Korea.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gachon University, Seongnam, Republic of Korea.
Nat Commun. 2025 May 28;16(1):4954. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60220-7.
Switchable control of adhesion is an important feature of many desired applications such as robotic manipulation, medical adhesives, and scalable microassembly. We present the study of the switchable dry adhesion of a shape memory polymer surface comprising nanotips which is based on not only overcoming but also exploiting the adhesion paradox, i.e., controlling surface roughness via the shape memory effect. Here, densely packed sharp nanotips causing an initial high surface roughness are flattened upon heating, pressing and cooling to provide a low surface roughness leading to a strong adhesion. However, the flattened nanotips restore their original shape upon reheating to cause a high surface roughness back resulting in a weak adhesion with the adhesion switchability of more than three orders of magnitude. These switchable adhesion capabilities are demonstrated in a variety of applications ranging from macro-scale robotic pick-and-place and fabric adhesives to deterministic micro-scale device-grade silicon platelet transfer and microLED assembly.
可切换的粘附控制是许多理想应用的重要特性，如机器人操作、医用粘合剂和可扩展微组装。我们展示了对一种包含纳米尖端的形状记忆聚合物表面的可切换干粘附性的研究，该研究不仅基于克服而且利用了粘附悖论，即通过形状记忆效应控制表面粗糙度。在此，密集排列的尖锐纳米尖端导致初始表面粗糙度较高，在加热、施压和冷却后变平，以提供低表面粗糙度从而实现强粘附。然而，重新加热后变平的纳米尖端会恢复其原始形状，导致表面粗糙度再次升高，从而产生弱粘附，粘附切换能力超过三个数量级。这些可切换的粘附能力在从宏观尺度的机器人拾取和放置、织物粘合剂到确定性微尺度的器件级硅片转移和微型发光二极管组装等各种应用中得到了展示。
