Polymer brushes for improvement of dry adhesion in biomimetic dry adhesives. (21st April 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chaudhary, Omer Javed; Calius, Emilio; Kennedy, John V.; Travas-Sejdic, Jadranka
• Is Part Of: International journal of nanotechnology. Volume 11:Number 5/6/7/8(2014)
• Page Start: 636
• Page End: 644
• Publication Date: 2014-04-21
• Subjects: dry adhesion -- geckos' adhesion -- poly(dimethylsiloxane) -- PDMS -- ATRP -- polymer brushes -- poly(butyl acrylate).; 620.505
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1475-7435

Abstract

Geckos' feet are extensively micro-structured, enabling geckos to adhere strongly to most surfaces and perform various manoeuvres even while upside down. Inspired by the structure of geckos' feet, a large number of biomimetic dry adhesives have been reported. Polymers brushes can offer a molecular scale attachment to surfaces; here we studied the effect of polymer brushes on adhesion. Atom transfer radical polymerisation (ATRP) was used to graft poly(butyl acrylate) brushes on a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) surface using a surface-bound ATRP initiator. Growth of the polymer brushes was verified by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. To study the effect of polymer brushes, the samples were tested for pull-off adhesion with and without the grafted chains. The polymer-grafted PDMS showed an increase in adhesion compared to unmodified PDMS. Results suggest that carefully selected polymer brushes will enhance the adhesion of microstructured biomimetic adhesives.