Bat-El Pinchasik, PhD
School of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
Various small animals, specifically insects, are subjected to interfacial forces, which are dominant at scales of few millimeters and weights of up to a few grams. Namely, capillary forces generated at interfaces between liquids and solids in air or between gas bubbles and solid surfaces underwater. These forces may be deadly for small insects. For example, when flies become entrapped at the water air interface without being able to overcome the adhesive forces and escape. However, they can be also used for propulsion and locomotion and help insects and other animals to survive. One example is the purple snail (Janthina janthina), which stabilizes air bubbles in order to float at the water-air interface of the ocean. There, it finds nutrition and is able to reproduce. Therefore, stable bubbles are important for its existence. Another example is the Backswimmer (Notonectidae, Anisops). This is an aquatic insect, capable of regulating its buoyancy underwater by using surface anchored bubbles. When it enters the water, it entraps an air bubble in a superhydrophobic hairy structure covering its abdomen. This bubble creates a stable plastron. Namely, a layer of external gas supply which can flow both to and from the water. While this bubble is mainly used for respiration, it also functions as an external inflatable gas reservoir for buoyancy regulation. This way, the backswimmer can reach neutral buoyancy without further energy consumption.
The ability to control the forces at interfaces opens many opportunities to mimic natural systems and miniaturize robotic systems. Therefore, new materials, propulsion and adhesion mechanisms are needed.
Biosketch
Bat-El Pinchasik graduated from the Technion Institute of Technology, Israel, in Materials Engineering (B.Sc.) and Physics (B.Sc.) in 2010. She then acquired a master’s degree in Polymer Science in an international Program Joint to Potsdam University, Humboldt University, Technical and Free Universities in Berlin, Germany. She did her master’s research at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Department of Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany (2012). She then continued on Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Department of Interfaces and Department of Biomaterials. In 2015 she became a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany.
Since 2018 she is an Assistant Professor at the Tel-Aviv University, Israel, at the department of Mechanical Engineering. She is interested in Biomimetic, Interfacial Phenomena, Insects Biomechanics, Underwater Adhesion and Locomotion Bio-inspired Materials and wetting