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Updated: Dec 15, 2025

Control of Cell Adhesion using Hydrogel Patterning Techniques for Applications in Traction Force Microscopy
Published on: January 29, 2022
Controlling wet adhesion with elasticity
Camille Duprat1, Camille Noûs2, Suzie Protière3
1LadHyX, CNRS, École Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, UMR 7646, 91128 Palaiseau, France. camille.duprat@ladhyx.polytechnique.fr.
Abstract:
We consider the wet adhesion between two deformable fibers. We show that a strong adhesive force can be maintained by coupling the fibers deformation with capillarity. We further identify a regime where, contrary to capillary adhesion, the pull-off force remains constant throughout debonding. In this peeling regime, elasticity, which tends to minimize the deformation of the object, is balanced by capillarity which maximizes the liquid spreading. We show that the adhesive force and the existence region of this self-adjusted peeling regime depend on a single dimensionless parameter, and can thus be controlled by tuning the material properties.
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