A facile approach is proposed for superior conformation and adhesion of wearable sensors to dry and wet skin. Bioinspired skin-adhesive films are composed of elastomeric microfibers decorated with conformal and mushroom-shaped vinylsiloxane tips. Strong skin adhesion is achieved by crosslinking the viscous vinylsiloxane tips directly on the skin surface. Furthermore, composite microfibrillar adhesive films possess a high adhesion strength of 18 kPa due to the excellent shape adaptation of the vinylsiloxane tips to the multiscale roughness of the skin. As a utility of the skin-adhesive films in wearable-device applications, they are integrated with wearable strain sensors for respiratory and heart-rate monitoring. The signal-to-noise ratio of the strain sensor is significantly improved to 59.7 because of the considerable signal amplification of microfibrillar skin-adhesive films.

Arrays of actuated magnetic micropillars that can be tilted, twisted, and rotated in the presence of a magnetic field gradient were obtained. The type and extent of the movements are dependent on the distribution (isotropic, anisotropic) of the magnetizable particles inside the pillars and the strength and the direction of the magnetic field gradient. Independent motion of groups of pillars in the same or opposite directions or homogeneous motion of the whole pattern has been realized. Changing the pattern geometry causes changes in the roll-off angle (ROA) of water droplets on the surface. We show magnetically induced changes in the ROA and direction-dependent ROAs as a consequence of the anisotropy of tilted patterns. We also demonstrate transfer of microparticles between magnetically actuated neighboring pillars.

Gecko adhesive performance increases as relative humidity increases. Two primary mechanisms can explain this result: capillary adhesion and increased contact area via material softening. Both hypotheses consider variable relative humidity, but neither fully explains the interactive effects of temperature and relative humidity on live gecko adhesion. In this study, we used live tokay geckos (Gekko gecko) and a gecko-inspired synthetic adhesive to investigate the roles of capillary adhesion and material softening on gecko adhesive performance. The results of our study suggest that both capillary adhesion and material softening contribute to overall gecko adhesion, but the relative contribution of each depends on the environmental context. Specifically, capillary adhesion dominates on hydrophilic substrates, and material softening dominates on hydrophobic substrates. At low temperature (12 °C), both capillary adhesion and material softening likely produce high adhesion across a range of relative humidity values. At high temperature (32 °C), material softening plays a dominant role in adhesive performance at an intermediate relative humidity (i.e., 70% RH).

A novel approach for high-performance gecko-inspired adhesives for strong and reversible adhesion to smooth surfaces is proposed. The composite patterns comprising elastomeric mushroom-shaped microfibers decorated with an extremely soft and thin terminal layer of pressure sensitive adhesive. Through the optimal tip shape and improved load sharing, the adhesion performance was greatly enhanced. A high adhesion strength of 300 kPa together with superior durability on smooth surfaces are achieved, outperforming monolithic fibers by 35 times. Our concept of composite microfibrillar adhesives provides significant benefits for real world applications including wearable medical devices, transfer printing systems, and robotic manipulation.

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