Contact
    Start Publications Chemical mediated elasto-capillarity of elastic sheets
    ←  Publication Finder
    Attension

    Chemical mediated elasto-capillarity of elastic sheets

    Year: 2017

    Journal: Soft Matter, Volume 13, NOV 28, page 8048–8054

    Authors: Liu, Jianlin; Gong, Yulong; Cao, Gaofeng

    Organizations: National Natural Science Foundation of China [11672335, 11611530541]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [15CX08004A]; Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Research Fellowship Scholarship from the Australian government

    Capillary forces can cause outstanding deformation of slender structures, and this behavior holds great potential in a plethora of areas. In this study, we propose a facile strategy to mediate the deformation of elastic structures via chemicals, which is named chemo-elasto-capillarity. The experiment shows that the added surfactant can significantly change the interfacial energy of the system, and then modulate the configuration of the adhered structures. The wetted length and deflection of each sheet can be predicted using the large and infinitesimal deformation theory of beams, and these theoretical values are in excellent agreement with the experimental results. Moreover, the proposed method can be successfully extended to unfold two adhered sheets, and one racket like sheet. The present scheme is accessible to accurately regulate elasto-capillarity, and provide some inspirations for engineering some chemical-sensitive devices and humidity-stimulated actuators.
    View publication