New Gecko-inspired Dry Adhesive for Applications in Climbing Devices
CS researchers have made a gecko-inspired dry adhesive with stiff polycarbonate using a nanoimprinting technique to build web-like layers. This method is cost-effective, easy to perform and is scalable.
Easy to Defy Gravity
Some animals, such as geckos, can easily climb up walls and across ceilings. But currently, no material exists that allows everyday people to scale walls or transverse ceilings as effortlessly. Now, scientists report in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces a dry adhesive that could someday make it easier to defy gravity.
Toe Pads Help in Scaling Walls
Geckos can scale walls because of their unique toe pads that help them quickly attach and detach from surfaces. Interestingly, gecko toe pads are covered with bristle-like layers of a stiff material called keratin.
The bristle-like structure of the keratin in a toe pad helps it to stick — each pad is covered with microscopic pillars, which then branch out at the tips into even smaller structures.
Scientists have manufactured dry adhesives with similar properties, but they haven’t been as sticky as gecko toes. And some methods involve the use of layers, but the first layer is usually damaged as successive ones are applied. Other methods are not easily scaled up. Hemant Kumar Raut, Hong Yee Low and colleagues wanted create a dry adhesive that was ultra-sticky but also simple to fabricate in large batches.
Nanoimprinting Technique
The researchers made a dry adhesive with stiff polycarbonate using a nanoimprinting technique to build web-like layers. This method is cost-effective, easy to perform and is scalable. To prevent damage to the first layer, the team used a sacrificial layer, which was dissolved away after the second layer was applied. In repetitive attachment and detachment tests, only a 20 percent decline in stickiness occurred after 50 cycles. This level of adhesion lasted for up to 200 cycles. The researchers say that their film’s adhesion was comparable to that of a gecko. The team also placed the adhesive film on the feet of a miniature robot, which moved with ease up a 30-degree incline.
本站所有信息与内容,版权归原作者所有。网站中部分新闻、文章来源于网络或会员供稿,如读者对作品版权有疑议,请及时与我们联系,电话:025-85303363 QQ:2402955403。文章仅代表作者本人的观点,与本网站立场无关。转载本站的内容,请务必注明"来源:林中祥胶粘剂技术信息网(www.adhesive-lin.com)".
©2015 南京爱德福信息科技有限公司 苏ICP备10201337 | 技术支持:南京联众网络科技有限公司