A reversible wet/dry adhesive inspired by

mussels and geckos

Haeshin Lee, Bruce P. Lee & Phillip B. Messersmith

Nature 448, 19 July 2007, 338-341

By – Jitendra Solanki
Outline
 Objective
 Biomimetics
 Dry and Wet Adhesion
 Inspired materials
 Fabrication of dry and wet adhesive
 Adhesion testing
 Adhesion Testing Results
 Summary
 Objective
A reversible wet/dry adhesive inspired by mussels and geckos
Biomimetics
Sticky mussels
inspire a new
underwater super-
glue
Dry Adhesion
 Microscopy has shown that a gecko’s
foot possesses nearly five hundred
thousand keratinous hairs or setae
 Each setae contains hundreds to
thousands of spatula-shaped
structures
 The ability of geckos to climb on sheer
surfaces is due to van der Waals force

Yasong Li et al., Bioinspired Dry Adhesive Materials

and Their Application in Robotics: A Review, Journal
of Bionic Engineering 13 (2016) 181–199.
 The effect of water on gecko foot adhesion

Gecko adhesion is greatly diminished upon full immersion in

water

Go for hybrid biologically inspired adhesive

Wet Adhesion  The byssal thread and plaque include
mussel foot protein (mfp-1, mfp-2,
mfp-3, mfp-4, mfp-5 and mfp-6)
 Proteins contain an amino acid 3,4
dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine (DOPA)
 mfp-3 is considered to play a critical
role in mussel adhesion (structural
flexibility due to small size and
considerably high DOPA content (~25
mol%))
 mfp-4 is proposed to act as a coupling
agent to connect the byssal thread
and plaque

Lin Li, Hongbo Zeng, Marine mussel adhesion and bio-

inspired wet adhesives, Biotribology 5 (2016) 44–51
Inspired materials
Gecko
 Gecko ’s foot possesses keratinous hairs
 Each setae 30 – 130 μm long terminating
in 0.2 - 0.5 μm spatula-shaped structures
 Use poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)
elastomer (good in microfabrication)
Mussel
 Mussels secrete specialized adhesive
proteins contains 3,4-dihydroxy-L-
phenylalanine(DOPA)
 Synthesize mussel mimetic polymer
 polymers with low water solubility to
prevent their loss into the aqueous
medium
 Use copolymer ---poly(dopamine
methacrylamide-co- methoxyethyl
acrylate) (p(DMA-co-MEA)
Fabrication of wet/dry adhesive
 Incorporation of mussel mimetic polymers into a gecko-foot-mimetic
nano-adhesive would yield strong yet reversible wet/dry adhesion
 Strategy

Arrays of gecko-mimetic
nanoscale pillars (dry
adhesive)

The geckel
wet/dry adhesive

Thin mussel-mimetic
polymer coating(wet
adhesive)
Fabrication of wet/dry adhesive

1. For the fabrication of gecko-mimetic adhesive

 use electron-beam lithography and make pattern of holes in a poly(methyl
methacrylate) (PMMA) film supported on a silicon wafer (negative mould)
 To create a gecko-mimetic pillar array, sol phase PDMS was cast onto the negative
mould
 Thermally solidified
 lifted off from the substrate to yield a positive array of poly(dimethylsiloxane)
(PDMS) pillars (400 nm in diameter and 600 nm in height)
Fabrication of wet/dry adhesive

2. Thin mussel-mimetic polymer coating(wet adhesive)

 Free radical copolymerization of the DMA and MEA monomers yields Mussel-
mimetic polymer, p(DMA-co-MEA) copolymer ---poly(dopamine methacrylamide-
co- methoxyethylacrylate)
3. The geckel wet/dry adhesive
 By dip-coating PDMS pillar arrays into an ethanol solution of p(DMA-co-MEA) for 3
h.
Fabrication of wet/dry adhesive

PDMS-
poly(dimethylsiloxane)

PMMA ON Si-
poly(methyl methacrylate)
film supported on a silicon wafer
(negative mould)

Figure : design and fabrication of wet/dry hybrid nanoadhesive

 Fabrication of wet/dry adhesive
a) Scanning electron microscopy image
of gecko nanopillar array fabricated
using electron-beam lithography
b) AFM line scan of the gecko
nanopillars. The height and diameter
of the pillars used in this study were
600 and 400 nm, respectively.
c) Chemical structure of the mussel-
mimetic polymer, p(DMA-co- MEA),
which is applied to the surface of the
gecko nanopillars.
d) Scanning electron microscopy image
of geckel adhesive after coating
nanopillar array with p(DMA-co-MEA)

Figure : Fabricated gecko and geckel adhesives

Adhesion Testing

The performance of geckel adhesive was evaluated using an atomic

force microscopy (AFM) system fully integrated with optical microscopy

the adhesive contact force with clear visualization of nanoscale contact

area down to the single pillar level
Adhesion Testing
a) Adhesion was measured by bringing a
tipless AFM cantilever (Si3N4) into
contact with the nanopillar array
b) The number of pillars contacting the
cantilever was controlled through the
distance d between pillars, and the
angle θ between the cantilever and
the axis of the pillar array
c) Optical microscope images showing
one pillar contact achieved with d=3
µm and θ=45°.
d) Optical microscope images showing six
pillar contact achieved with d=1 µm
and θ=0°.
 Adhesion Testing Results
Adhesion experiments were performed both in air and under water for uncoated
(gecko or dry adhesive) and p(DMA-co-MEA) coated (geckel or wet/dry adhesive)
pillar arrays

 Force displacement curves were

obtained for contact of cantilever
with one (red), two (blue), three
(green), four (pink), and five
(black) pillars (without p(DMA-co-
MEA) coating) in water

 With increase in the no. of pillars

contact-----critical displacement
distance increases

Figure : Force displacement curve for contact with a Si3N4 cantilever and uncoated pillars in water
 Adhesion Testing Results
 Force displacement curves were
obtained for contact of cantilever
with one (red), two (blue), three
(green) pillars with coating in
water
 With increase in the no. of pillers
contact-----critical displacement
distance increases
 Displacement distance is
comparably high, shows better
performance with coating

Figure : Force displacement curve for contact with a Si3N4 cantilever and coated pillars in water
 Adhesion Testing Results

 Nanostructured surface is essential to the

observed geckel adhesive behavior
 Force measurements on flat substrates
coated with p(DMA-co-MEA) indicates low
adhesive strength

Figure : Retraction force–distance curve for contact between cantilever and flat
p(DMA-co-MEA)-coated PDMS
Adhesion Testing Results

 Mean separation force values versus

number of pillars for gecko (triangle)
and geckel (circle) in water (red) and
air (black)
 linear increase in force with pillar
number
 The adhesive force per pillar was
calculated from the individual slopes

Figure : Force v/s no. of pillars curve

 Adhesion Testing Results

 The adhesive force per pillar was

calculated from the individual slopes of
regression line shown in d :
F1= 39.862nN (gecko in air)
F2= 5.960.2 nN (gecko in water)
F3= 12066 nN (geckel in air)
F4= 86.365 nN (geckel in water)
 Graph were plotted

Figure : Adhesion force per pillar for different adhesion testing

 Adhesion Testing Results
 AFM force measurements showed that
geckel’s wet- and dry-adhesion power
was only slightly diminished during
many cycles of adhesion
 Maintains 85% in wet (red) and 98% in
dry (black) conditions after 1,100
contact cycles
 The geckel wet-adhesion strength was
also high when tested against other
surfaces: titanium oxide and gold

Figure : Adhesion force per pillar for different adhesion testing

Summary

 gecko-mimetic nanoscale pillars + mussel-mimetic polymer coating

The geckel wet/dry adhesive

 The performance of geckel adhesive was evaluated using an atomic force microscopy
(AFM) system
 AFM force measurements showed wet- and dry-adhesion power was only slightly
diminished during many cycles of adhesion
Thank You 