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arXiv · 2005.03289

Switchable Adhesion of Soft Composites Induced by a Magnetic Field

Paolo Testa·Benoît Chappuis·Sabrina Kistler·Robert W. Style·Laura J. Heyderman·Eric R. Dufresne
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Abstract

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 mould to 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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Paolo Testa, Benoît Chappuis, Sabrina Kistler, Robert W. Style, Laura J. Heyderman, Eric R. Dufresne. 2020-05-07. Switchable Adhesion of Soft Composites Induced by a Magnetic Field. https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.03289

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