Letter abstract
Nature Materials 2, 461 - 463 (2003)
doi:10.1038/nmat917
Subject Categories: Polymers | Biological materials | Structural materials | Mechanical properties | Surface and thin films
Microfabricated adhesive mimicking gecko foot-hair
A. K. Geim1, S. V. Dubonos1,2, I. V. Grigorieva1, K. S. Novoselov1, A. A. Zhukov2 and S. Yu. Shapoval2
The amazing climbing ability of geckos has attracted the interest of
philosophers and scientists alike for centuries1, 2, 3. However,
only in the past few years2, 3 has progress been made in
understanding the mechanism behind this ability, which relies on submicrometre
keratin hairs covering the soles of geckos. Each hair produces a miniscule
force 
10-7 N (due to van der Waals and/or capillary
interactions) but millions of hairs acting together create a formidable
adhesion of 10 N cm-2: sufficient to keep geckos
firmly on their feet, even when upside down on a glass ceiling. It is very
tempting3 to create a new type of adhesive by mimicking the
gecko mechanism. Here we report on a prototype of such 'gecko tape' made by
microfabrication of dense arrays of flexible plastic pillars, the geometry of
which is optimized to ensure their collective adhesion. Our approach shows a
way to manufacture self-cleaning, re-attachable dry adhesives, although
problems related to their durability and mass production are yet to be
resolved.
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
- Institute for Microelectronics Technology, 142432 Chernogolovka, Russia
Correspondence to: A. K. Geim1 e-mail: geim@man.ac.uk
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