Probabilistic fasteners are known to provide strong attachment onto their respective surfaces. Examples are Velcro® and the “3M dual lock” system. However, these systems typically only function using specific counter surfaces and are often destructive to other surfaces such as fabrics. Moreover, the design parameters to optimize their functionality are not obvious. Here, we present a surface patterned with soft micrometric features inspired by the mushroom shape showing a nondestructive mechanical interlocking and thus attachment to fabrics. We provide a scalable experimental approach to prepare these surfaces and quantify the attachment strength with rheometric and video-based analysis. In these “probabilistic fasteners,” we find that higher feature densities result in higher attachment force; however, the individual feature strength is higher on a low feature density surface. We interpret our results via a load-sharing principle common in fiber bundle models. Our work provides new handles for tuning the mechanical attachment properties of soft patterned surfaces that can be used in various applications including soft robotics.
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Hooked on mushrooms: Preparation and mechanics of a bioinspired soft probabilistic fastener
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January 2021
Research Article|
January 19 2021
Hooked on mushrooms: Preparation and mechanics of a bioinspired soft probabilistic fastener
Special Collection:
Special Topic Collection: Biomimetics of Biointerfaces
Preeti Sharma
;
Preeti Sharma
a)
1
Physical Chemistry and Soft Matter, Wageningen University & Research
, Wageningen 6708 WE, Netherlands
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: preeti.sharma@wur.nl and joshua.dijksman@wur.nl
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Vittorio Saggiomo
;
Vittorio Saggiomo
2
BioNano Technology, Wageningen University & Research
, Wageningen 6700 EK, Netherlands
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Vincent van der Doef;
Vincent van der Doef
1
Physical Chemistry and Soft Matter, Wageningen University & Research
, Wageningen 6708 WE, Netherlands
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Marleen Kamperman
;
Marleen Kamperman
3
Polymer Science, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Groningen 9747 AG
, Netherlands
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Joshua A. Dijksman
Joshua A. Dijksman
a)
1
Physical Chemistry and Soft Matter, Wageningen University & Research
, Wageningen 6708 WE, Netherlands
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: preeti.sharma@wur.nl and joshua.dijksman@wur.nl
Search for other works by this author on:
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: preeti.sharma@wur.nl and joshua.dijksman@wur.nl
Note: This paper is part of the Biointerphases Special Topic Collection on Biomimetics of Biointerfaces.
Biointerphases 16, 011002 (2021)
Article history
Received:
September 15 2020
Accepted:
November 30 2020
Citation
Preeti Sharma, Vittorio Saggiomo, Vincent van der Doef, Marleen Kamperman, Joshua A. Dijksman; Hooked on mushrooms: Preparation and mechanics of a bioinspired soft probabilistic fastener. Biointerphases 1 January 2021; 16 (1): 011002. https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0000634
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