Switchable adhesion of soft composites induced by a magnetic field
Paolo Testa, Benoit Chappuis, Sabrina Kistler, Robert W. Style, Laura J. Heyderman, Eric R. Dufresne
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 mold into 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.