Reversible Adhesives, Dr. Carlo Menon

This talk presents advances in the field of reversible adhesives, namely adhesives that can be reused multiple times without performance reduction. Biomimetic dry adhesives based on the fibrillar structures used by geckos to adhere to a wide range of materials are thought to rely on van der Waals’ forces for attachment.  Over the last several years researchers have developed a number of techniques to manufacture arrays of biomimetic dry adhesive fibres. These include, among others, nanodrawing, nanoimprinting, plasma etching of polyimide, and poly-(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) demolding. Fabrication procedures and performance of gecko-inspired , elecro, and magnetic adhesives are presented and discussed. Future research directions are highlighted.