The sticky pads of gecko ’s foot are helpful for climbing walls — but they could also facilitate make clean up dust , too . Researchers from Yale University have found that their microscopic structure could be used to forgather extremist - fine debris that ’s otherwise devilish concentrated to seize .
Look at the open of a gecko ’s base under a microscope and you wo n’t see a politic surface , but thousands of flyspeck pillars . Those pillars assist return electrostatic charges that provide at least part of the creature ’s ability to clamber up vertical surfaces with relative ease .
But electrostatic charges could also be used to attract rubble particle , the researchers picture — so they decided to build a new fabric that mimics the microstructure of the gecko foot . The final result is a flat solid of a polymer call polydimethylsiloxane ( PDMS ) , with pillars over its open that range in sizing from 2 to 50 microns in diam .
Unlike a gecko foot , the electrostatic care created by the pillars is too weak for a rag of the material to stick to a surface — but it is strong enough to attract dust speck . And it operate : In the mental image below , you may see silica dust particles being attracted to a 50 - micron diam column . The inquiry is publish inACS Applied Materials and Interfaces .
The squad has test it on a serial publication of unlike surfaces , where it appears to work effectively and cause no damage to the objects it ’s being used to clean . While the project was go under up to produce a instrument that could be used to make clean artworks , the research worker cipher it could in theory be used to clean any open .
Now we just ask to wait for their clever cleaning fabric to become a commercial reality .
[ ACS Applied Materials and InterfacesviaFuturity ]
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