{"691623":{"#nid":"691623","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Researchers Discover New Mechanism Behind Soft-Material Adhesion","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EAnyone who has peeled off a bandage knows that speed matters. Conventional wisdom, and decades of adhesion research, suggest that pulling faster makes adhesive forces stronger. But researchers at Georgia Tech have discovered that soft materials can behave in a far more surprising way.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EInstead of becoming steadily stickier as they are pulled apart, soft hydrogels first become less adhesive and then more adhesive as the pulling speed increases, revealing a previously unknown \u0022sweet spot\u0022 where detachment is easier. The discovery challenges a long-held assumption in adhesion mechanics and reveals a new physical mechanism that governs how soft materials attach and detach.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We expected the adhesion to increase continuously with pulling speed, as predicted by classical theories,\u0022 said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/me.gatech.edu\/faculty\/hu-2\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYuhang Hu\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, associate professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/me.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorge W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.chbe.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESchool of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0022Instead, we found the exact opposite over a broad range of speeds. That told us there had to be a completely different physical process at work.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.me.gatech.edu\/news\/georgia-tech-researchers-discover-new-mechanism-behind-soft-material-adhesion\u0022\u003ERead the full story on the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering website.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAnyone who has peeled off a bandage knows that speed matters. Conventional wisdom, and decades of adhesion research, suggest that pulling faster makes adhesive forces stronger. But researchers at Georgia Tech have discovered that soft materials can behave in a far more surprising way.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EInstead of becoming steadily stickier as they are pulled apart, soft hydrogels first become less adhesive and then more adhesive as the pulling speed increases, revealing a previously unknown \u0022sweet spot\u0022 where detachment is easier. The discovery challenges a long-held assumption in adhesion mechanics and reveals a new physical mechanism that governs how soft materials attach and detach.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We expected the adhesion to increase continuously with pulling speed, as predicted by classical theories,\u0022 said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/me.gatech.edu\/faculty\/hu-2\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYuhang Hu\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, associate professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/me.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorge W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.chbe.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESchool of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0022Instead, we found the exact opposite over a broad range of speeds. That told us there had to be a completely different physical process at work.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech researchers have uncovered a new mechanism governing how soft materials adhere, revealing that adhesion can weaken and then strengthen as pulling speed increases \u2014 a finding that could enable new approaches to biomedical devices, soft robotic"}],"uid":"36881","created_gmt":"2026-08-11 21:11:11","changed_gmt":"2026-08-11 21:28:30","author":"ttroha3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-08-11T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-08-11T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680841":{"id":"680841","type":"image","title":"Yuhang-Hu_Article_Picture1.png","body":null,"created":"1786482709","gmt_created":"2026-08-11 21:11:49","changed":"1786482709","gmt_changed":"2026-08-11 21:11:49","alt":"Three-panel figure showing soft-material adhesion experiments: a microscope image of a probe contacting a surface, fluorescence images of the contact area, and a graph showing pull-off force versus retraction speed, with stress relaxation and dynamic bond effects labeled.","file":{"fid":"265167","name":"Yuhang-Hu_Article_Picture1.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/11\/Yuhang-Hu_Article_Picture1.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/11\/Yuhang-Hu_Article_Picture1.png","mime":"image\/png","size":118400,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/08\/11\/Yuhang-Hu_Article_Picture1.png?itok=2T-fAHFm"}}},"media_ids":["680841"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"108731","name":"School of Mechanical Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"194701","name":"go-resarchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETracie Troha\u003Cbr\u003EGeorge W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}