Robust and reversible adhesion under extreme thermal conditions

Abstract

Adhesive materials have many potential applications for daily life, such as soft robotics, grippers, and wearable devices. However, robust and reversible adhesion under extreme thermal conditions—like ultralow temperature surfaces and conditions with large temperature variations—is a significant challenge and has rarely been studied. Here, we report a new design of a mushroom-shaped adhesive based on materials design and structural microfabrication. The fabricated adhesive possesses one to two orders of higher adhesive strength at −100°C than those recently reported in the literature, with promising reversible adhesion under temperature variations from −100°C to 100°C and on −98.5°C dry-state ice surfaces. We believe this new strategy will have broad potential applications including but not limited to glacier rescue and polar exploration.