Elastocapillary coalescence in wet hair

José Bico (), Benoît Roman, Loïc Moulin and Arezki Boudaoud
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José Bico: Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes (UMR CNRS 7636), ESPCI
Benoît Roman: Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes (UMR CNRS 7636), ESPCI
Loïc Moulin: Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes (UMR CNRS 7636), ESPCI
Arezki Boudaoud: Laboratoire de Physique Statistique de l'ENS (UMR CNRS 8550)

Nature, 2004, vol. 432, issue 7018, 690-690

Abstract: Abstract We investigated why wet hair clumps into bundles by dunking a model brush of parallel elastic lamellae into a perfectly wetting liquid. As the brush is withdrawn, pairs of bundles aggregate successively, forming complex hierarchical patterns that depend on a balance between capillary forces and the elasticity of the lamellae. This capillary-driven self-assembly of flexible structures, which occurs in the tarsi of insects1 and in biomimetic adhesives2 but which can also damage micro-electromechanical structures3,4,5,6 or carbon nanotube ‘carpets’6,7,8, represents a new type of coalescence process.

Date: 2004
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DOI: 10.1038/432690a

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