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Nature Materials 7, 348 - 349 (2008)
doi:10.1038/nmat2175

Material mechanics: An angle on sticky films

Jan Groenewold1

  1. Jan Groenewold is at the van't Hoff laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Debye Research Institute, Utrecht University, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.
    e-mail: jg@denk-werk.nl


The interplay of various mechanical forces leads to characteristic shapes of torn adhesive films. Analysis of these shapes provides potential for new approaches to material characterization.


It is a phenomenon that all of us have encountered at some point in our lives: the annoying tendency of adhesive tape to not peel properly. Instead of the whole piece peeling nicely in rectangular fashion, a triangular section all too often narrows and detaches (Fig. 1

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