Humidity-tolerant rate-dependent capillary viscous adhesion of bee-collected pollen fluids

Donglee Shin, Won Tae Choi, Haisheng Lin, Zihao Qu, Victor Breedveld and J. Carson Meredith ()
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Donglee Shin: Georgia Institute of Technology
Won Tae Choi: Georgia Institute of Technology
Haisheng Lin: Georgia Institute of Technology
Zihao Qu: Georgia Institute of Technology
Victor Breedveld: Georgia Institute of Technology
J. Carson Meredith: Georgia Institute of Technology

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract We report a two-phase adhesive fluid recovered from pollen, which displays remarkable rate tunability and humidity stabilization at microscopic and macroscopic scales. These natural materials provide a previously-unknown model for bioinspired humidity-stable and dynamically-tunable adhesive materials. In particular, two immiscible liquid phases are identified in bioadhesive fluid extracted from dandelion pollen taken from honey bees: a sugary adhesive aqueous phase similar to bee nectar and an oily phase consistent with plant pollenkitt. Here we show that the aqueous phase exhibits a rate-dependent capillary adhesion attributed to hydrodynamic forces above a critical separation rate. However, the performance of this adhesive phase alone is very sensitive to humidity due to water loss or uptake. Interestingly, the oily phase contributes scarcely to the wet adhesion. Rather, it spreads over the aqueous phase and functions as a barrier to water vapor that tempers the effects of humidity changes and stabilizes the capillary adhesion.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09372-x

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