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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 98 » Issue 15
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 156103 (2007) [4 pages]

Capillary Origami: Spontaneous Wrapping of a Droplet with an Elastic Sheet

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Charlotte Py1,*, Paul Reverdy2, Lionel Doppler1, José Bico1, Benoît Roman1, and Charles N. Baroud2
1Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes, ESPCI, Paris 6, Paris 7, UMR CNRS 7636, 75231 Paris cedex 5, France
2Laboratoire d’Hydrodynamique (LadHyX) and Département de Mécanique, École Polytechnique, UMR CNRS 7646, 91128 Palaiseau cedex, France

Received 27 November 2006; published 13 April 2007

See accompanying Physics Focus

The interaction between elasticity and capillarity is used to produce three-dimensional structures through the wrapping of a liquid droplet by a planar sheet. The final encapsulated 3D shape is controlled by tailoring the initial geometry of the flat membrane. Balancing interfacial energy with elastic bending energy provides a critical length scale below which encapsulation cannot occur, which is verified experimentally. This length is found to depend on the thickness as h3/2, a scaling favorable to miniaturization which suggests a new way of mass production of 3D micro- or nanoscale objects.

© 2007 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.156103
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.156103
PACS:
68.08.−p, 46.32.+x, 81.16.Dn, 85.85.+j

*Present address: Matière et Systèmes Complexes, Universitè Paris 7, UMR CNRS 7057, 75205 PARIS Cedex 13, France.

 
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