News Release

Snail-inspired superglue

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Human-Scale Load Bearing Test

video: Human-scale load bearing test showing an adult human male weighing ~ 87 kg supported by two adhesive films in a double-lap configuration. view more 

Credit: Movie courtesy of Shu Yang.

Researchers report a reversible, super-strong, hydrogel-based adhesive inspired by snails. Commercial adhesives are either strong and irreversible, such as superglues, or weak and reusable, such as pressure-sensitive tapes. Some biologically inspired adhesives such as Velcro are both strong and reversible, but they require interlocking structures on opposing surfaces for adhesion. To create a strong and reversible adhesive that works on an array of surfaces, Shu Yang, Anand Jagota, and colleagues fashioned a hydrogel that combines the desirable properties of liquid and dry adhesives, drawing inspiration from snails. Snails glide along rough and uneven surfaces, secreting mucus, which provides traction. As the mucus dries and hardens, its shear modulus rises from 100 Pa to 1 GPa, resulting in a structure called an epiphragm, which cements the snail to the surface. The authors developed a reversible hydrogel made of poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) that works on smooth and rough surfaces, with adhesive strengths reaching 892 N/cm2, comparable to superglues. Like the snail's epiphragm, the gel deforms in its soft, wet state to adapt and adhere to the target surface. Upon drying, the gel shrinks, turns glassy, and interlocks with the surface, its shear modulus increasing by three orders of magnitude to around 2.3 GPa. Rehydrating the gel liberates the stored energy, restores the gel's original shape, and quickens detachment--a physical attribute termed "shape adaptation and memory." The authors scaled-up the adhesive by layering the hydrogel atop a silicon backbone attached to a tendon made of Kevlar tape. Using only a pair of 2 cm2 samples of the hydrogel, the authors demonstrate that an adult human weighing 87 kg can be suspended from the adhesive rig. Additionally, the authors used a structured PHEMA gel pad to detach the wing scales of Morpho butterflies without damaging the scales' gossamer microstructures--a task too delicate for liquid glues. According to the authors, the PHEMA hydrogel can be scaled up and chemically modified for an array of applications.

Article #18-18534: "Intrinsically reversible superglues via shape adaptation inspired by snail epiphragm," by Hyesung Cho et al.

MEDIA CONTACT: Shu Yang, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; tel: 215-898-9645; e-mail: shuyang@seas.upenn.edu

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