Physical mechanisms behind the wet adhesion: From amphibian toe-pad to biomimetics

Abstract

Some amphibians, such as tree frogs, torrent frogs, newts, are able to climb or attach to wet slippery smooth surfaces, even in a vertical or overhanging state, by their reliable reversible adhesions developed on the epidermal of toe pads. It is widely believed that such outstanding function originates from the possible factors of the specialized evolutions of surficial micro/nanostructures, the chemical components of secreted mucus, the solid-liquid behavior of epidermal and the bulk softness of toe pads. In this review, we summarize the main physical mechanisms of these factors behaving underlying the wet adhesion of toe pads from the researches on biological models to artificial counterparts. The discussion of the organism attachments, the interfacial physical forces and the switchable strategies for artificial wet adhesion are also included. The paper gives a deeply, comprehensively understanding of the characters of wet adhesives on amphibians, which performs necessarily for the new strategies of exploring artificial adhesive surfaces.

Keywords: Amphibians; Biomimetics; Frictions; Structured surfaces; Wet adhesions.