Addressing the critical need for reliable adhesion in soft substrates and medical applications, we will discuss in this seminar how we can improve adhesive properties by changing its architecture to tailor to specific challenges and materials compatibility. In medicine, structured adhesives inspired by gecko fibrillar structures show reliable adhesion to rough and biological surfaces only through van de Waals interactions, in addition to a force-tolerance range during application, which allows for damping against an overload to the countersurface. These structures showcase promising results in skin adhesives and wound dressings for sensitive tissues like eardrum perforations.
In the domain of soft and highly stretchable substrates such as fabrics and elastomers, commercial adhesive tapes have been modified based on metamaterial structures to harmonize with the mechanical properties of the substrates, working as mechanically transparent joints.
These projects highlight the power of microstructuring materials to develop high-performance adhesives. This field of work paves the way for future advancements in adhesive technology in many fields by addressing the fundamental challenge of adhesion in soft materials and medical science.