Nanomolding based fabrication of synthetic gecko foot-hairs

This paper proposes two different nanomolding methods to fabricate synthetic gecko foot-hair nanostructures. The first method uses an atomic force microscope (AFM) probe indented flat wax surface and the second one uses a nano-pore membrane as a template. These templates are molded with silicone rubber, polyimide and polyester type polymers under vacuum and the template is peeled off or etched away. Results show that these synthetic nano-hair prototypes have adhesion close to the predicted values for natural specimens (around 100 nN each).