2012/04/03 - Research highlight in Lab on a Chip → http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2012/lc/c2lc90033e

A paper highlighted in Lab on a Chip (C. Pang, T.-i. Kim, W. G. Bae, D. Kang, S. M. Kim, and K. Y. Suh, “Bioinspired Reversible Interlocker Using Regularly Arrayed High Aspect-Ratio Polymer Fibers,” Adv. Mater. 24(4), 475 (2012.01).)

Recently, Suh and colleagues have engineered reversible interlocking devices by mimicking the wing-locking structures in beetles. Pang et al. studied the microscopic surfaces of the beetle thorax and wing and found hexagonal arrays of thin microhairs.

They observed that interlocking and subsequent shearing of the microhairs on the wing and the thorax against each other resulted in a large shear force and locking of the two surfaces.