Stretchable, adhesion-tunable dry adhesive by surface wrinkling

Abstract

We introduce a simple yet robust method of fabricating a stretchable, adhesion-tunable dry adhesive by combining replica molding and surface wrinkling. By utilizing a thin, wrinkled polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) sheet with a thickness of 1 mm with built-in micropillars, active, dynamic control of normal and shear adhesion was achieved. Relatively strong normal (approximately 10.8 N/cm(2)) and shear adhesion (approximately 14.7 N/cm(2)) forces could be obtained for a fully extended (strained) PDMS sheet (prestrain of approximately 3%), whereas the forces could be rapidly reduced to nearly zero once the prestrain was released (prestrain of approximately 0.5%). Moreover, durability tests demonstrated that the adhesion strength in both the normal and shear directions was maintained over more than 100 cycles of attachment and detachment.