Fig. 6. Adhesion strength measurements using the lap-shear protocol.

a Schematic of the lap-shear experiment and a photo of an experiment in progress. Samples are first adhered over a lap region and then affixed to glass slides on their reverse sides using cyanoacrylate glue. Tension is then applied to the ends of the slides. b Stress vs. strain curves from lap-shear experiments for two sets of samples: gel-gel (QDM-Alg) and gel-tissue (QDM-aorta). Data are shown for the cases of electroadhesion and contact adhesion (control). The samples delaminate at the end of each curve, marked by an X. The stress at this point is a measure of the adhesion strength. c Adhesion strengths from the curves in (b) for the QDM-Alg and QDM-Aorta samples and for the two cases of electro- and contact adhesion. In each category, at least three samples were studied and the averages are plotted. Error bars correspond to standard deviations.