We have created a multifunctional dry adhesive film with transferred vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VA-CNTs). This unique VA-CNT film was fabricated by a multistep transfer process, converting the flat and uniform bottom of VA-CNTs grown on atomically flat silicon wafer substrates into the top surface of an adhesive layer. Unlike as-grown VA-CNTs, which have a nonuniform surface, randomly entangled CNT arrays, and a weak interface between the CNTs and substrates, this transferred VA-CNT film shows an extremely high coefficient of static friction (COF) of up to 60 and a shear adhesion force 30 times higher (12 N/cm) than that of the as-grown VA-CNTs under a very small preloading of 0.2 N/cm. Moreover, a near-zero normal adhesion force was observed with 20 mN/cm preloading and a maximum 100-μm displacement in a piezo scanner, demonstrating ideal properties for an artificial gecko foot. Using this unique structural feature and anisotropic adhesion properties, we also demonstrate effective removal and assembly of nanoparticles into organized micrometer-scale circular and line patterns by a single brushing of this flat and uniform VA-CNT film.

Core-shell thermally expandable microcapsules were prepared via Pickering suspension polymerization. Acrylonitrile (AN) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) were used as the comonomers and the halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) were used as the Pickering emulsifier. The influence of the HNT concentration, AN/MMA ratio, and types of hydrocarbon was investigated. When the HNT concentration was 0.6 wt%, the microcapsules exhibited a core-shell morphology that contained approximately 35 wt% of the blowing agents with an average particle size of 232.0 μm. Increasing the MMA contents resulted in a larger particle size and lower thermal stability. Core-shell microcapsules could be synthesized using iso-hexane, iso-octane, and n-octane, but microcapsules could not be fabricated with n-pentane. At 1 and 3 bar, the contents of the encapsulated blowing agents were 10 %, whereas the contents of the encapsulated blowing agents were approximately 35 and 60 % at 1.5 and 2 bar, respectively.

Thermally expandable core–shell microcapsules (TEM) were fabricated with an organic steric stabilizer and an inorganic Pickering emulsifier. In order to fabricate a TEM, acrylonitrile (AN) and metacrylonitrile (MAN) were used as monomers. Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) and poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) were used as the inorganic Pickering emulsifier and the organic stabilizer, respectively. The liquid hydrocarbon content in the core, and the thermal and expansion properties, of TEMs with two different emulsifiers were compared. The mechanical properties of polypropylene (PP) foams containing TEMs prepared with two types of stabilizers were analyzed. The TEMs polymerized with PVP showed a finer expanded cell, while those fabricated with HNTs resulted in a larger expanded cell in the PP matrix. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 44247.

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