Dresden 2006 – scientific programme

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AKB: Biologische Physik

AKB 13: Cell Adhesion II

AKB 13.3: Talk

Tuesday, March 28, 2006, 15:00–15:15, ZEU 260

Adhesion of microcapsules — •Peter Graf and Udo Seifert — II. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57/III, D-70550 Stuttgart

We describe the adhesion and deformation of an initially spherical capsule on a flat surface due to an attractive contact potential. The model includes the Helfrich bending energy, the energy of the elastic deformations, and the energy of the contact potential. Given the elastic constants of the capsule’s material and the strength of the contact potential we calculate the axially symmetric shape of the adhered capsule. Above a critical adhesion strength a contact area forms. For the radius of this contact area we find a power law. Its prefactor depends on the elastic constants and can be expressed in scaling form. We discuss this elastic case in relation to adhesion of fluid vesicles and compare our model with recent experimental results (N. Elsner, F. Dubreuil, and A. Fery, Phys. Rev. E 69, 031802 (2004)) with good agreement.