Nature provides remarkable examples of adhesive bioparticles that function in a wide range of environmental and dynamic conditions including marine diatoms, plant pollens, and fungal spores. These microparticles are robust examples of nature’s solutions to adhesion in wide-ranging habitats (land, water, air) and on surfaces with a variety of structures and chemistries. Pollens, in particular, are microscale particles that exhibit remarkable variety in their nanoscale surface ornamentations and posses numerous adhesive characeristics that make them an ideal model for biomimicry. This talk will detail recent discoveries of the adhesive mechanisms of pollen, with a focus on (i) physical pattern-matching of pollens with stigma surfaces to create pressure-sensitive adhesion and (ii) the role of capillary forces in forming nanoscale capillary bridges that mediate the adhesion and detachment of pollens from surfaces. We will describe experimentally observed static and dynamic regimes of capillary forces and utilize models to understand the role of the rheological properties of pollenkitt in creating these forces. Importantly, the forces generated by pollenkitt give pollen attachment and release from surfaces a sensitive dependence on humidity, release rate, and surface morphology. This talk will explore the physics of these forces, how they might contribute to pollenation in nature, and how they might be harnessed to engineer new materials.

Developing new adhesive designs and capabilities from the biomimicry of pollen

250th National Meeting (2015)

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