Soft Materials at surfaces and interfaces: Elastocapillarity

In recent years, there has been a significant interest in understanding the interaction between a liquid’s surface tension and a solid’s elasticity: elastocapillarity. In particular, liquids can generate significant deformations of highly compliant materials. The capillary interaction between liquids and soft deformable solids can provide novel avenues for self-assembly and self-organization. These elastocapillary interactions are highly relevant in a wide variety of systems including capillary origami, kirigami, and folding, soft tissues, wetting of fibers and hair, and micro-patterning of soft surfaces. In this talk I will summarize recent work on the capillary interactions of liquid droplets with elastic surfaces.