Carbon Nanotube Arrays with Strong Shear Binding-On and Easy Normal Lifting-Off
Abstract
The ability of gecko lizards to adhere to a vertical solid surface comes from their remarkable feet with aligned microscopic elastic hairs. By using carbon nanotube arrays that are dominated by a straight body segment but with curly entangled top, we have created gecko-foot–mimetic dry adhesives that show macroscopic adhesive forces of ∼100 newtons per square centimeter, almost 10 times that of a gecko foot, and a much stronger shear adhesion force than the normal adhesion force, to ensure strong binding along the shear direction and easy lifting in the normal direction. This anisotropic force distribution is due to the shear-induced alignments of the curly segments of the nanotubes. The mimetic adhesives can be alternatively binding-on and lifting-off over various substrates for simulating the walking of a living gecko.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 10, 2008
- Source ID
- 10.1126/science.1159503
Entities
People
- Liangti Qu
- Liming Dai
- Morley Stone
- Zhenhai Xia
- Zhong Lin Wang
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory
- Georgia Tech
- University of Akron
- University of Dayton