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Gecko biomimicry produces adhesive better than the real thing Nanotube Adhesive Sticks Better than a Gecko's Foot University of Akron June 19, 2007
In a paper published in the June 18—22 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers describe a process for making polymer surfaces covered with carbon nanotube hairs. The nanotubes imitate the thousands of microscopic hairs on a gecko's footpad, which form weak bonds with whatever surface the creature touches, allowing it to "unstick" itself simply by shifting its foot. For the first time, the team has developed a prototype flexible patch that can stick and unstick repeatedly with properties better than the natural gecko foot. They fashioned their material into an adhesive tape that can be used on a wide variety of surfaces, including Teflon. Pulickel Ajayan, the Henry Burlage Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer, and Lijie Ci, a postdoctoral research associate in Ajayan's lab, created the material in collaboration with Ali Dhinojwala, professor of polymer science at the University of Akron, and University of Akron graduate students Liehui Ge and Sunny Sethi.  Courtesy of the University of Akron. Microfabricated aligned multiwalled carbon nanotube setae and spatulas. (A) Optical picture of gecko foot showing that the setae are arranged in many lobes along the foot. (B) SEM image of natural gecko setae terminating into thousands of smaller spatulas. (E--H) SEM images of synthetic setae of width 50 (E), 100 (F), 250 (G), and 500 (H) um. (C and D) Side views (C) and higher magnification SEM image (D) of the 100 um setae. "Several people have tried to use carbon nanotube films and other fibrous structures as high-adhesive surfaces and to mimic gecko feet, but with limited success when it comes to realistic demonstrations of the stickiness and reversibility that one sees in gecko feet," Ajayan said. "We have shown that the patchy structures from micropatterned nanotubes are essential for this unique engineering feat to work. The nanotubes also need to be the right kind, with the right dimensions and compliance." "Geckos inspired us to develop a synthetic gecko tape unlike any you'll find in a hardware store," Dhinojwala says. "Synthetic gecko tape uses van der Waals interactions' — the same interactions that hold liquids and solids together — to stick to a variety of surfaces without using sticky glues." The material could have a number of applications, including feet for wall-climbing robots; a dry, reversible adhesive in electronic devices; and outer space, where most adhesives don't work because of the vacuum. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation. Related
(11/16/2008) A new discovery make it possible in the future to manufacture acrylic glass from organic materials including sugars, alcohols or fatty acids. Financial crisis could pave way for greener economy inspired by nature (10/20/2008) Biomimicry — the use of nature to inspire design — could serve as a model for a greener economy that rises out of the ashes of the financial crisis, said experts meeting at a sustainability conference in the San Francisco Bay Area. Speaking at the three-day Bioneers conference in San Rafael, Janine Benyus, a leading voice in the emerging field of biomimicry, said that nature offers lessons that can be applied to build better and more sustainable products and services as well as economic models. Company that turns CO2 into eco-friendly plastic gets new CEO (10/20/2008) Novomer, a firm developing biodegradable plastics using carbon dioxide instead of petroleum as a feedstock, today announced the appointment of Jim Mahoney as its new chief executive officer and the relocation of company headquarters from Ithaca, N.Y. to Boston, Mass. Challenges of starting a green business (10/20/2008) While green design offers the potential to greatly improve the sustainability of new goods and services without sacrificing performance, developing and bringing such products to market is a challenge, said a panel of innovators from companies using nature as inspiration for new technologies. Speaking at the 2008 Bioneers conference in San Rafael, California, Stephen Dewar of WhalePower, Charles Hamilton of Novomer, and Jay Harman of PAX Scientific told biomimicry expert Jane Benyus that radically new approaches to solving design and engineering problems is often met with skepticism from the existing market. Whale biomimicry inspires better wind turbines (7/7/2008) By studying and mimicking the characteristics of the flippers, fins and tails of whales and dolphins, engineers have devised more a efficient way to generate wind power, reports a researcher presenting at the Society for Experimental Biology's Annual Meeting in Marseille, France. Comments? News options SHARE THIS ARTICLE:
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