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Information about Synthetic Setae

Synthetic setae emulate the setae found on the toes of a gecko and scientific research in this area is driven towards the development of dry adhesives. Geckos have no difficulty mastering vertical walls and are apparently capable of adhering themselves to just about any surface. The 5-toed feet of a gecko are covered with elastic hairs called setae and the end of these hairs are split into so-called spatulas (no doubt because they carry a resemblance to actual spatulas). The sheer abundance and proximity to the surface of these spatulas make it sufficient for van der Waals forces alone to provide the required adhesive strength.[1]

Approaches

One experimental inroad to artificial setae is provided by nanotubes. In one particular scheme, a thick layer of nanotubes is embedded in a polymer matrix and the adhesive force is calculated to be 200 times that provided by the gecko hairs. These multi walled nanotubes (MWNT) are generated by chemical vapour deposition with xylene as a carbon source and ferrocene as a catalyst and exposure of 10 minutes to 800 °C on a quartz or silicon substrate. The nanotubes have a diameter of 1 to 2 nanometres and a length of 65 micrometres. They are dipped into a solution of methyl methacrylate with azobisisobutylonitrile as a catalyst and 1-decenethiol as a chain transfer agent and polymerized to PMMA at 50 °C for 24 hours. The top is then etched away by immersion with a solvent like acetone exposing the MWNT hairs. In the final step the artificial skin and hairs are stripped from the silicon or quartz substrate. Scanning probe microscopy provides a means to measure adhesive force.[2]

Applications

Researchers at Stanford University have created a robot which uses synthetic setae in order to scale walls just as a gecko would.[3]

References

See Seta for a concept in biology
SETA (Seksuaalinen Tasavertaisuus RY, Sexual Equality) is the main GLBT rights organisation in Finland. The current President of Finland, Tarja Halonen was a chairwoman of SETA before her presidency.
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Gekkonidae
Gray, 1825

Subfamilies

Aeluroscalabotinae
Eublepharinae
Gekkoninae
Teratoscincinae
Diplodactylinae

Geckos are small to average sized lizards belonging to the family Gekkonidae
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See Seta for a concept in biology
SETA (Seksuaalinen Tasavertaisuus RY, Sexual Equality) is the main GLBT rights organisation in Finland. The current President of Finland, Tarja Halonen was a chairwoman of SETA before her presidency.
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A spatula, known as a fish slice in British English, is a kitchen utensil with a long handle and a broad flat edge, used for lifting fish and fried foods.[1][2] Though the word spatula
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van der Waals force is sometimes used as a synonym for the totality of non-covalent forces (also known as intermolecular forces). These forces, which act between stable molecules, are weak compared to those appearing in chemical bonding.
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Adhesion is the molecular attraction exerted between bodies in contact.

Mechanisms of Adhesion

Five mechanisms have been proposed to explain why one material sticks to another:

Mechanical Adhesion


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A nanotube is a Nanometer scale wire-like structure that is most often composed of Carbon:
  • Carbon nanotube
Inorganic nanotubes have also been synthesised, including:
  • Boron nitride
  • Silicon
  • Titanium dioxide (B)
  • Tungsten disulphide

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Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a chemical process used to produce high-purity, high-performance solid materials. The process is often used in the semiconductor industry to produce thin films.
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xylenes refers to a group of 3 benzene derivatives which encompasses ortho-, meta-, and para- isomers of dimethyl benzene. The o-, m- and p
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Ferrocene is the chemical compound with the formula Fe(C5H5)2. Ferrocene is the prototypical metallocene, a type of organometallic chemical compound consisting of two cyclopentadienyl rings bound on opposite sides of a central metal atom.
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catalysis is the acceleration (increase in rate) of a chemical reaction by means of a substance called a catalyst, which is itself not consumed by the overall reaction.
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Quartz (from German Quarz   (help info ) [1]) is the second most common mineral in the Earth's continental crust, feldspar being the first.
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Silicon (IPA: /ˈsɪlɪkən/ or /ˈsɪlɪˌkɑn/, Latin: silicium
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Methyl methacrylate is a chemical compound mostly known as the monomer for the production of the transparent plastic polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA).

Production


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Azobisisobutyronitrile is a toxic compound often used as a foamer in plastics and rubber and as a radical initiator. It is commonly known as AIBN. Its most common chemical reaction is one of decomposition, eliminating a molecule of nitrogen gas to form two
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Chain transfer is a reaction in radical polymerization by which a radical center on a growing polymer chain is transferred to another molecule.[1]

P. + XR'
> PX + R'.
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alkene polymerisation, in which each Styrene monomer unit's double bond reforms as a single bond with another styrene monomer and forms polystyrene.]] In polymer chemistry, polymerization
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A solvent is a liquid that dissolves a solid, liquid, or gaseous solute, resulting in a solution. The most common solvent in everyday life is water. Most other commonly-used solvents are organic (carbon-containing) chemicals. These are called organic solvents.
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The chemical compound acetone (also known as propanone, dimethyl ketone, 2-propanone, propan-2-one and β-ketopropane) is the simplest representative of the ketones.
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Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) is a new branch of microscopy that forms images of surfaces using a physical probe that scans the specimen. An image of the surface is obtained by mechanically moving the probe in a raster scan of the specimen, line by line, and recording the
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August 27 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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Chemical Communications, known as ChemComm, is a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Published weekly by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), it contains communications
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