SoylentNews

AnonTechie writes:

From NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

A piece of tape can only be used a few times before the adhesion wears off and it can no longer hold two surfaces together. But researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are working on the ultimate system of stickiness, inspired by geckos. Thanks to tiny hairs on the bottom of geckos' feet, these lizards can cling to walls with ease, and their stickiness doesn't wear off with repeated usage. JPL engineer Aaron Parness and colleagues used that concept to create a material with synthetic hairs that are much thinner than a human hair. When a force is applied to make the tiny hairs bend, that makes the material stick to a desired surface.

"This is how the gecko does it, by weighting its feet," Parness said. Behind this phenomenon is a concept called van der Waals forces. A slight electrical field is created because electrons orbiting the nuclei of atoms are not evenly spaced, so there are positive and negative sides to a neutral molecule. The positively charged part of a molecule attracts the negatively charged part of its neighbor, resulting in "stickiness." Even in extreme temperature, pressure and radiation conditions, these forces persist.

"The grippers don't leave any residue and don't require a mating surface on the wall the way Velcro would," Parness said. The newest generation of grippers can support more than 150 Newtons of force, the equivalent of 35 pounds (16 kilograms).

Previously: Gecko Grippers get a Microgravity Test Flight