  The performances of lubricated systems widely used in natural, biological,
and artificial settings are traditionally dictated by their load bearing
capacities. Here we unveil that, by exploiting a unique coupling between
interfacial electro-mechanics, hydrodynamics and substrate compliance, it is
plausible to realize a massive augmentation in the load bearing capacities
ofcompliant microfluidic channels. Our analysis demonstrates that the interplay
between wettability and charge modulation in association with the solution
chemistry and surface compliance results in this remarkable phenomenon. These
results are likely to open up novel design paradigms of augmenting the load
bearing capacities of miniaturized bio-mimetic units through the realization of
a symmetry breaking phenomenon triggered by asymmetries in electromechanical
and hydrodynamic transport over interfacial scales.
