Switchable adhesion of soft composites induced by a magnetic field.

Testa P; Chappuis B; Kistler S; Style RW; Heyderman LJ; Dufresne ER

doi:10.1039/d0sm00626b

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Journal article

Switchable adhesion of soft composites induced by a magnetic field.

Testa P Laboratory for Mesoscopic Systems, Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland. paolo.testa@mat.ethz.ch laura.heyderman@mat.ethz.ch.
Chappuis B
Kistler S
Style RW
Heyderman LJ
Dufresne ER

2020-05-30

Published in:

Soft matter. - 2020

English Switchable adhesives have the potential to improve the manufacturing and recycling of parts, and to enable new modes of motility for soft robots. Here, we demonstrate magnetically-switchable adhesion of a two-phase composite to non-magnetic objects. The composite's continuous phase is a silicone elastomer, and the dispersed phase is a magneto-rheological fluid. The composite is simple to prepare, and to mold into different shapes. When a magnetic field is applied, the magneto-rheological fluid develops a yield stress, which dramatically enhances the composite's adhesive properties. We demonstrate up to a nine-fold increase of the pull-off force of non-magnetic objects in the presence of a 250 mT field.

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