Fabrication of biomimetic wet adhesive pads with surface microstructures by combining electroforming with soft lithography

Abstract

Biomimetic adhesive pads, which include seta adhesive pads and wet adhesive pads, are compel-ling to be applied for a climbing robot. A novel approach for fabricating biomimetic wet adhesive pads with surface microstructures by combining electroforming process with soft lithography is proposed in this paper. According to the principle of wet adhesive of insects’ pads, the mechanism of wet adhesion is analyzed. Polydimethylsiloxane wet adhesive pads with surface microstructures with the width of 100 μm and height of 25 μm have been obtained experimentally. A series of testing experiments have been carried out to prove that microstructures on the surface of pads fabricated by the proposed technique can effectively improve the wet adhesive ability.