Tough adhesives for diverse wet surfaces.

Adhesion to wet and dynamic surfaces, including biological tissues, is important in many fields but has proven to be extremely challenging. Existing adhesives are cytotoxic, adhere weakly to tissues, or cannot be used in wet environments. We report a bioinspired design for adhesives consisting of two layers: an adhesive surface and a dissipative matrix. The former adheres to the substrate by electrostatic interactions, covalent bonds, and physical interpenetration. The latter amplifies energy dissipation through hysteresis. The two layers synergistically lead to higher adhesion energies on wet surfaces as compared with those of existing adhesives. Adhesion occurs within minutes, independent of blood exposure and compatible with in vivo dynamic movements. This family of adhesives may be useful in many areas of application, including tissue adhesives, wound dressings, and tissue repair.

On the tip calibration for accurate modulus measurement by contact resonance atomic force microscopy.

Accurate quantitative elastic modulus measurements using contact resonance atomic force microscopy require the calibration of geometrical and mechanical properties of the tip as well as the choice of a suitable model for describing the cantilever-tip-sample system. In this work, we demonstrate with both simulations and experiments that the choice of the model influences the results of the calibration. Neglecting lateral force results in the underestimation of the tip indentation modulus and in the overestimation of the tip-sample contact radius. We propose a new approach to the calibration and data analysis, where lateral forces and cantilever inclination are neglected (which simplifies the calculations) and the tip parameters are assumed as fictitious.

Focused ion beam induced deflections of freestanding thin films.

Prominent deflections are shown to occur in freestanding silicon nitride thin membranes when exposed to a 50 keV gallium focused ion beam for ion doses between 10(14) and 10(17) ions/cm(2). Atomic force microscope topographs were used to quantify elevations on the irradiated side and corresponding depressions of comparable magnitude on the back side, thus indicating that what at first appeared to be protrusions are actually the result of membrane deflections. The shape in high-stress silicon nitride is remarkably flattopped and differs from that in low-stress silicon nitride. Ion beam induced biaxial compressive stress generation, which is a known deformation mechanism for other amorphous materials at higher ion energies, is hypothesized to be the origin of the deflection. A continuum mechanical model based on this assumption convincingly reproduces the profiles for both low-stress and high-stress membranes and provides a family of unusual shapes that can be created by deflection of freestanding thin films under beam irradiation.