Seminar über aktuelle Fragen zur Dynamik komplexer Fluide: The near and the far of a soft contact

Soft, squishy solids remarkably mimic the behavior of liquid interfaces. For example, the classical problem of adhesion between two elastic solids become like the wetting of liquids upon increasing softness of the solid. This observation unifies apparently disparate fields of contact mechanics and capillarity, and a detailed understanding of it is key to many technological applications. In this talk, I will discuss two distinct features of such a soft contact. The first one is line tension which dominates at small distances from the contact edge, and is responsible for the engulfment of nanoparticles on polymeric substrates. The second one is an interplay of elasticity and gravity which dictates the interfacial deformation around the contact region and triggers log-ranged interactions leading to self assembly of particles on soft layers.