Adhesion of hydrogels to hard solids (e.g., metals like copper or steel or titanium, or inorganic materials like graphite) has attracted great interest in recent years. Conventional adhesives are usually applied to adhere two hard solids, but may not be appropriate to connect a soft, aqueous material like a hydrogel to a hard solid. We report our discovery of a new way to achieve such adhesion without requiring any<br/>adhesives. In our experiments a hydrogel is brought into contact with a hard material like graphite or copper and a low DC voltage is applied for a few minutes. The hard material serves as the electrode (either cathode or anode) during the experiment. We find that a very strong adhesion, which we term ‘electroadhesion’, is induced between the hydrogel and the electrode. This adhesion persists after the field<br/>is removed. In some cases, the hydrogel can be detached from the electrode by applying the same DC voltage but with reversed polarity. This remarkable phenomenon occurs with a variety of hydrogels, including those made by physical crosslinking of biopolymers or by free-radical polymerization of typical monomers. The mechanism for this phenomenon will be discussed in this presentation. Such ability to<br/>achieve strong and reversible adhesion between a hard and a soft material could prove to be useful in a variety of applications, especially in a biomedical context.

Strong adhesion of hard solids to soft gels by applying an electric field

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ACS Fall 2022

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