Capillary adhesion of wetted cribellate spider capture silks for larger pearly hanging-drops

Abstract

Larger hanging-drops on a fiber have been significant for water-acquiring engineering or filtering projects in recent years. Cribellate spider capture silks after wetting hang amazingly large pearly water drops and display strong water capture ability. This ability wouldn't exist without a special wet adhesion on a surface. Here, we investigate the capillary adhesion on wetted cribellate spider's capture silk during the hanging of larger pearly water drops. Based on the roughness and curvature of a spindle-knot on wetted spider silk, the novel models of capillary adhesion force are proposed to value the larger pearly hanging-drops. The strong water-capturing ability can be demonstrated by as-designed artificial fibers. This investigation opens an insight into the wet adhesive property of spider silk, which is helpful to design artificial polymer fibers that will be applied into water collecting tents and webs, and extended into filtering projects such as the noxious emission of aerosol and dust pollution from chemical plants.