When the going gets rough – studying the effect of surface roughness on the adhesive abilities of tree frogs

• Niall Crawford,
• Thomas Endlein,
• Jonathan T. Pham,
• Mathis Riehle and
• W. Jon P. Barnes

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 2116–2131, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.201

• fluid to fill the space under the pad, leaving air pockets that would significantly reduce the Laplace pressure component of capillarity. Therefore, we measured how well the adhesive toe pad would conform to spherical asperities of known sizes using interference reflection microscopy. Based on

• cavity area between the pad and surfaces would be such that pad fluid secretion would be unable to fully fill the pad contact area, as proposed by Persson [20]. Such a situation would be reflected in a reduction in adhesive force. To gain further insight into this, interference reflection microscopy (IRM

• remain useful in showing how surface roughness affects a tree frog’s climbing performance. As the frogs‘ sticking ability is reliant on wet adhesive forces, the fluid layer beneath the pad in contact with the surface is key to how effectively tree frogs can climb. Interference reflection microscopy (IRM

Scanning reflection ion microscopy in a helium ion microscope

• Yuri V. Petrov and
• Oleg F. Vyvenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1125–1137, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.114

• detectable step height was found to be approximately 5 nm. RIM imaging of an insulator surface without the need for charge compensation was successfully demonstrated. Keywords: helium ion microscope; low-angle ion scattering; reflection microscopy; surface imaging; surface morphology; Introduction

• narrow beam divergence angle of about 0.5 mrad [15][16], which is ten times less than the best beam divergence angle possible in SEM. The large depth of focus makes helium ion microscopy (HIM) a very promising tool for scanning reflection microscopy. During the last decade the imaging capabilities of HIM

Physical principles of fluid-mediated insect attachment - Shouldn’t insects slip?

• Jan-Henning Dirks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1160–1166, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.127

• interference reflection microscopy results indicate that boundary friction might be responsible for the friction [49][68]. However, although first results indicate that the mediating fluid layer in insect pads might be thinner than previous estimates [69], so far there is no experimental evidence for the