Issue 19, 2011

Capillary adhesion of wetted cribellate spider capture silks for larger pearly hanging-drops

Abstract

Larger hanging-drops on a fiber have been significant for water-acquiring engineering or filtering projects in recent years. Cribellate spider capture silks after wetting hang amazingly large pearly water drops and display strong water capture ability. This ability wouldn't exist without a special wet adhesion on a surface. Here, we investigate the capillary adhesion on wetted cribellate spider's capture silk during the hanging of larger pearly water drops. Based on the roughness and curvature of a spindle-knot on wetted spider silk, the novel models of capillary adhesion force are proposed to value the larger pearly hanging-drops. The strong water-capturing ability can be demonstrated by as-designed artificial fibers. This investigation opens an insight into the wet adhesive property of spider silk, which is helpful to design artificial polymer fibers that will be applied into water collecting tents and webs, and extended into filtering projects such as the noxious emission of aerosol and dust pollution from chemical plants.

Graphical abstract: Capillary adhesion of wetted cribellate spider capture silks for larger pearly hanging-drops

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Apr 2011
Accepted
12 Jul 2011
First published
26 Aug 2011

Soft Matter, 2011,7, 9468-9473

Capillary adhesion of wetted cribellate spider capture silks for larger pearly hanging-drops

Z. Huang, Y. Chen, Y. Zheng and L. Jiang, Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 9468 DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05646H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements