Large-scale flexible molding technology for producing biomimetic dry adhesives in mutliple materials using a commerical acrylic master

Abstract

We present a novel fabrication method that uses 254 nm light from germicidal lamps to convert commercial acrylic substrates into master molds for biomimetic dry adhesives. These gecko-inspired adhesives use appropriately shaped fibers to make intimate contact with surfaces and adhere using van der Waals interactions. While previous molding technologies for synthetic dry adhesives were limited by the size of the substrates used, our technology makes use of bulk acrylic, and is technically possible to scale up to dozens of square feet per master mold. Nearly any castable polymer may be converted to a dry adhesive using this technology.