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Adhesives require molecular contact, which is governed by roughness, modulus, and load. Here, we measured adhesion for stiff glassy polymer layers of varying thickness on top of a soft elastomer with rough substrates. We found that a 90-nm-thick PMMA layer on a softer elastic block was sufficient to drop macroscopic adhesion to almost zero during the loading cycle. This drop in adhesion for bilayers follows the modified Persson-Tosatti model, where the elastic energy for conformal contact depends on the thickness and modulus of the bilayer. In contrast, we observed no dependence on thickness of the PMMA layer on the work of adhesion calculated using the pull-off forces. Understanding how mechanical gradients (like bilayers) affect adhesion is critical for areas such as adhesion, friction, and colloidal and granular physics. Published by the American Physical Society2024
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Adhesion of impure ice on surfaces
Impurities in water affect ice adhesion strength on surfaces. Depending on the freezing rate, they can be trapped in ice or pushed out, forming a lubricating layer. They also affect the quasi-liquid layer between ice and surface, impacting adhesion.
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- PAR ID:
- 10494737
- Publisher / Repository:
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Materials Horizons
- Volume:
- 11
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2051-6347
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 419 to 427
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Ice adhesion, contaminants, ice physics
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Liquid propylene-glycol (PG) has long been used as an anti-icing substance, for example, by spraying on an airplane parked in an airport. In applications, large quantities of PG flow away, which is costly and raises environmental concerns. Here we report propylene-glycol materials, including PG-gels and PG-gel/cotton composites. A PG-gel consists of PG molecules as a solvent and a polymer network. PG evaporates slowly, and the polymer network retains the PG molecules so long as the gel is not in contact with running water. Water and PG form a eutectic system with an eutectic temperature of −60 ◦C. When ice falls on the surface of the gel, the ice and the PG molecules compete for water molecules, and thermodynamics dictates that the ice should lose water molecules to the PG molecules, so that ice melts and water molecules dissolve in the gel. A liquid-like layer exists on the ice/gel interface, the adhesion energy between the gel and ice is low, and ice readily slides on the gel. We peel a PG-gel from ice, and measure a low adhesion energy of ∼3 Jm−2 at temperatures about −35 ◦C. We further demonstrate PG-gel/cotton composites as tough, anti-icing blankets. The blankets are reusable if one removes water by dehydration, and replenish PG by submerging the blanket in liquid PG.more » « less
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Abstract Commonly used parameterization of mixed layer instabilities in general circulation models was developed for temperate oceans and does not take into account the presence of sea ice in any way. However, the ice–ocean drag provides a strong mechanical coupling between the sea ice and the surface ocean currents and hence may affect mixed layer restratification processes. Here we use idealized simulations of mixed layer instabilities to demonstrate that the sea ice dramatically suppresses the eddy-driven overturning in the mixed layer by dissipating the eddy kinetic energy generated during instabilities. Considering the commonly used viscous-plastic sea ice rheology, we developed an improvement to the existing mixed layer overturning parameterization, making it explicitly dependent on sea ice concentration. Below the critical sea ice concentration of about 0.68, the internal sea ice stresses are very weak and the conventional parameterization holds. At higher concentrations, the sea ice cover starts acting as a nearly immobile surface lid, inducing strong dissipation of submesoscale eddies and reducing the intensity of the restratification streamfunction up to a factor of 4 for a fully ice-covered ocean. Our findings suggest that climate projection models might be exaggerating the restratification processes under sea ice, which could contribute to biases in mixed layer depth, salinity, ice–ocean heat fluxes, and sea ice cover.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1039/D3MH01440A
