Research Progress
Geckos inspire engineering research
Post: 2014-09-29 15:43  View:1280

 

Bioinspired engineering research is leading to advances in a variety of fields and the development of diverse applications. The adhesive properties of geckos toes are some of the latest stimuli for investigation into the advantages of animal adaptations, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology reported.

 

Overview of the research


Scientists from Carnegie Mellon University and KIT recently collaborated in an effort to emulate the sticky characteristics of geckos appendages. Researchers succeeded in creating an adhesive tape that achieved self-cleaning and fastening capacities comparable to those of the gecko, according to an abstract of the study.

 

Geckos feet can stay clean even when they are treading on diverse particles that could stick to their adhesive toes. To find a way to imitate this ability, scientists used spherical silica contaminants and mushroom-shaped elastomer microfibers of various sizes to perform self-cleaning experiments.

 

After conducting these procedures, researchers discovered that geckos feet stay clean by rotating particles while drawing the toes across an object. The synthetic adhesives tested by the team were able to become sticky again after picking up contaminants by using a load-drag-unload mechanism akin to that at work on the feet of geckos.

 

The researchers noted that developing adhesives with such self-cleaning capacities could serve various functions in practical applications, such as clothing closures and reusable tapes.

 

Experimental details


KIT also released additional details about the proceedings of the gecko adhesive research team. Rather than use dirt particles or other real world contaminants, the scientists utilized micrometer-sized spheres made of glass. With balls that exceeded the size of the mushroom-shaped fibers, the adhesive capacity of the test tape could be restored by 80 to 100 percent after eight to ten test cycles.

 

When smaller particles were used, however, only about 33 percent of the stickiness of the tape could be reconditioned. To increase the self-cleaning return of the tape, finer fibers are required.

 

"For the perfect gecko-inspired adhesive tape, we therefore need fibers in the nanometer range [10-9 meters], which are smaller than most dirt particles," said Michael Röhrig, Ph.D., a KIT Institute of Microstructure Technology scientist.

 

Geckos are able to remove large particles from their feet with the lateral friction produced by dragging their toes along the surface they are walking on, while tinier contaminants collect in skin folds and setae on the creatures soles.

 

"This effect is determined by the ratio between particle size and setae diameter," said Hendrik Hölscher, Ph.D., of IMT.

 

Upcoming studies will include investigations with dirt fragments of diverse sizes, shapes and materials, allowing for further engineering research and development to devise varied applications for gecko-inspired adhesives.

 

 

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