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The deposition of multiphase materials with microstructural control would enable new fabrication modalities, such as spatial variation in composition and the integration of microstructure and structural features. In this work, acousticallyexcited microfluidic print nozzles were used to tailor the microstructure of printed composite filaments consisting of SiC fibers, solid BaTiO 3 spheres, or hollow SiO 2 spheres in an epoxy matrix. The results demonstrate that acoustic focusing is a promising technique to control microparticles and deposit two-phase ordered structures using a single nozzle. In addition to tuning the microstructure within a single print line, the overall concentration of particles can be increased by focusing the particle stream in a branched geometry, enabling the deposition of material with higher particle volume fractions than the initial ink composition. We show that even modest volume fractions of acoustically-focused and concentrated SiC fibers can produce printed composite filaments with unprecedented control over microstructural ordering that exhibit strengths rivaling polymer-matrix composites with higher volume fractions of stiffer fibers.

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The remarkable ability of some plants and animals to cling strongly to substrates despite relatively weak interfacial bonds has important implications for the development of synthetic adhesives. Here, we examine the origins of large detachment forces using a thin elastomer tape adhered to a glass slide via van der Waals interactions, which serves as a model system for geckos, mussels and ivy. The forces required for peeling of the tape are shown to be a strong function of the angle of peeling, which is a consequence of frictional sliding at the edge of attachment that serves to dissipate energy that would otherwise drive detachment. Experiments and theory demonstrate that proper accounting for frictional sliding leads to an inferred work of adhesion of only approximately 0.5 J m 22 (defined for purely normal separations) for all load orientations. This starkly contrasts with the interface energies inferred using conventional interface fracture models that assume pure sticking behaviour, which are considerably larger and shown to depend not only on the mode-mixity, but also on the magnitude of the mode-I stress intensity factor. The implications for developing frameworks to predict detachment forces in the presence of interface sliding are briefly discussed.