The crawling process of snakes is known to have fascinating tribological phenomena,whereas investigations on their frictional properties depending on patterned cuticles are insufficient.In this study,we have designed ...The crawling process of snakes is known to have fascinating tribological phenomena,whereas investigations on their frictional properties depending on patterned cuticles are insufficient.In this study,we have designed and fabricated biomimetic microstructures inspired by the geometric microunits of Achalinus spinalis cuticle using polyurethane acrylate(PUA)material and performed its tribological analysis.The micro-morphology of this Achalinus-inspired textured polymer surface(AITPS)is characterized by the closely and evenly quasi-rectangular microgrooves,periodically arranged along certain orientations.We have compared the frictional performance of our fabricated AITPS with other competitive microstructure,using a smooth steel ball and commercial clay as an interacting surface.After performing massive friction tests with steel ball and clay,AITPS still maintains good resistance reduction performed compared to the patterned surface with straight microgrooves,which is most likely due to the reduction of actual contact areas at the frictional interface.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.52075249)the foundation of Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Bionic Functional Materials,China.The authors thank Xipeng WANG and Tingwei HUO in Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics,China,for help in the AFM and LEXT experiments.
文摘The crawling process of snakes is known to have fascinating tribological phenomena,whereas investigations on their frictional properties depending on patterned cuticles are insufficient.In this study,we have designed and fabricated biomimetic microstructures inspired by the geometric microunits of Achalinus spinalis cuticle using polyurethane acrylate(PUA)material and performed its tribological analysis.The micro-morphology of this Achalinus-inspired textured polymer surface(AITPS)is characterized by the closely and evenly quasi-rectangular microgrooves,periodically arranged along certain orientations.We have compared the frictional performance of our fabricated AITPS with other competitive microstructure,using a smooth steel ball and commercial clay as an interacting surface.After performing massive friction tests with steel ball and clay,AITPS still maintains good resistance reduction performed compared to the patterned surface with straight microgrooves,which is most likely due to the reduction of actual contact areas at the frictional interface.