Biologically inspired polymer microfibers with spatulate tips as repeatable fibrillar adhesives Available to Purchase

Being inspired by gecko foot hairs, microfibers with flat spatulate tips are proposed as repeatable adhesives. They are fabricated by molding a master template fabricated using deep reactive ion etching and the notching effect. Fabricated polyurethane fiber arrays with $4.5μm$ fiber and $9μm$ tip diameter demonstrated macroscale adhesion pressures up to $18N∕cm2$ and overall work of adhesion up to $11J∕m2$ on a $6mm$ diameter glass hemisphere for a preload pressure of $12N∕cm2$⁠. These results show around four times higher adhesion and five times higher overall work of adhesion as compared to the flat polyurethane surface.