2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Investigation of the suckerfish adhesion mechanism via the preparation of the mimicked materials

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	20K05634
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 35020:Polymer materials-related
Research Institution	Chitose Institute of Science and Technology
Principal Investigator	Shimomura Masatsugu 公立千歳科学技術大学, 理工学部, 教授 (10136525)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	平井悠司公立千歳科学技術大学, 理工学部, 准教授 (30598272)
Project Period (FY)	2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
Keywords	バイオミメティクス / ウバウオ / 吸盤 / 吸着 / 接着 / ナノフィラメント
Outline of Final Research Achievements	In this research, we had aimed the investigation of the rapid, reversible, and strong adhesion mechanism even under water of a suckerfish ventral sucker disk via the preparation of mimicked structures. The suckerfish mimicked materials had successfully prepared by using anodic aluminum oxide as the mold for polystyrene nanofilaments and a silicone elastomer as the soft top layer. According to the adhesive force measurements of the prepared suckerfish mimicked adhesive materials, it had revealed that the embedded nanofilament in soft materials enforces the adhesive force of the surface soft materials. In other words, increment of the contact area by softness and dispersion of the deformation stress by hard nanofilament embedded in soft materials during the detachment process are important for strong adhesion. This knowledge would be applicable for developments of strong adhesive materials for wide variety of fields including under water usage.
Free Research Field	バイオミメティクス
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	本研究は生物の優れた機能から学んで新規機能性材料を創り出すバイオミメティクス研究の一環であり、模倣構造の作製を通して得られたウバウオの接着機構は材料科学的な応用のみならず、生物学へフィードバックすることができる研究成果であった。すなわち、柔らかい材料によって接触面積を増やし、内部に埋め込まれた硬い材料によって剥離時の変形応力を分散させることで強い接着力を生み出すという接着機構は、生分解性高分子やエンジニアリングプラスチック、金属などの様々な材料で達成可能な条件であり、用途に合わせた材料設計により優れた吸脱着材料を開発することが可能な知見となった。