Tape Works Like Gecko Feet

Mimicking the agile gecko, with its uncanny ability to run up walls and across ceilings, has long been a goal of materials scientists. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Akron have taken one sticky step in the right direction, developing a flexible patch that can stick and unstick repeatedly better than the natural gecko foot.

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 hairs on a gecko’s footpad, allowing it to “unstick” itself simply by shifting its foot.

The researchers fashioned their material into an adhesive tape that can be used on a wide variety of surfaces, including Teflon.

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.

—LiveScience Staff

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