The group prepared flexible fibers of polyimide as the synthetic setae structures on the surface of a 5 μm thick film of the same material using electron beam lithography and dry etching in an oxygen plasma. Work started in 2001 and two years later results were published in Nature Materials. Nano tape is one of the first developments of synthetic setae, which arose from a collaboration between the Manchester Centre for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology, and the Institute for Microelectronics Technology in Russia. Since the carbon nanotube arrays leave no residue on the substrate, the tape can be reused many times. The shear adhesion allows the tape to be easily peeled off, in the manner a gecko lifts its foot. Nano tapes mimic these structures with carbon nanotube bundles, which simulate setae, and individual nanotubes, which simulate spatulas, to achieve macroscopic shear adhesion and to translate the weak van der Waals interactions into high shear forces. The shear adhesion is achieved by forming and breaking van der Waals forces between these microscopic structures and the substrate. On a gecko's foot, micrometer-sized elastic hairs called setae are split into nanometer-sized structures called spatulas. Geckos show a remarkable ability to climb smooth vertical surfaces at high speeds, exhibiting both strong attachment and easy rapid removal, or shear adhesion, of their feet. The adhesion is achieved not with chemical adhesives, but via van der Waals forces, which are weak electric forces generated between two atoms or molecules that are very close to each other. These arrays are called synthetic setae and mimic the nanostructures found on the toes of a gecko this is an example of biomimicry. Nano tape, also called gecko tape marketed under the name Alien Tape, is a synthetic adhesive tape consisting of arrays of carbon nanotubes transferred onto a backing material of flexible polymer tape. Synthetic adhesive tape Commercially available nano tape.
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