Work

Ultrafast Adhesion/Friction Bidirectionally Switchable Control by Vibration

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Adhesion/friction engineering underpins critical technologies spanning robotic manipulation, wearable electronics, and advanced manufacturing systems. While bioinspired designs have progressively narrowed the differences in environmental adaptability, a fundamental trade‐off persists: synthetic materials fail to simultaneously achieve rapidly reversible switching and robust multidomain performance on tilted, rough, or dynamically disturbed surfaces. Here, this conflict is resolved by integrating a bioinspired friction pad with a curvature‐magnetogradient smooth pad by field‐programmable vibration‐modulation, achieving: i) benchmark shear strength (131.57 kPa), and >90% retention over 200 cycles; ii) universal surface adaptability (tilt ≥ 3°, roughness ≥ R a 0.8 µm, and > 70% friction retention under 400 Hz/60 µm vibrations); and iii) ultrafast bidirectional regulation (adhesion/friction response time < 30 ms). Gradient magnetic particle distribution across the architecture's cross‐section enables stress homogenization, which enhances the effective work of adhesion while reducing strain energy, and attenuates interfacial fluctuations through nonlinear stiffness amplification. Crucially, this strategy shifts the paradigm of interfacial control from static geometric optimization to spatiotemporally programmable field modulation, establishing a universal adaptive adhesion/friction framework. Its millisecond‐scale reconfigurability and environmental resilience will have broad potential applications, including but not limited to industrial automation, human‐robot collaboration, and biomimetic microsystems operating under dynamic environments.

Source: Advanced Functional Materials

DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202516421