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Evidence for self-cleaning in gecko setae
Open accessAbstract
A tokay gecko can cling to virtually any surface and support its body mass with a single toe by using the millions of keratinous setae on its toe pads. Each seta branches into hundreds of 200-nm spatulae that make intimate contact with a variety of surface profiles. We showed previously that the combined surface area of billions of spatulae maximizes van der Waals interactions to generate large adhesive and shear forces. Geckos are not known to groom their feet yet retain their stickiness for months between molts. How geckos manage to keep their feet clean while walking about with sticky toes has remained a puzzle until now. Although self-cleaning by water droplets occurs in plant and animal surfaces, no adhesive has been shown to self-clean. In the present study, we demonstrate that gecko setae are a self-cleaning adhesive. Geckos with dirty feet recovered their ability to cling to vertical surfaces after only a few steps. Self-cleaning occurred in arrays of setae isolated from the gecko. Contact mechanical models suggest that self-cleaning occurs by an energetic disequilibrium between the adhesive forces attracting a dirt particle to the substrate and those attracting the same particle to one or more spatulae. We propose that the property of self-cleaning is intrinsic to the setal nanostructure and therefore should be replicable in synthetic adhesive materials in the future.
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“however, gecko adhesive has been observed to self-clean when it becomes contaminated [26].”
From Human climbing with efficiently scaled gecko-inspired dry adhesives (2015) · cites this paper as [26]
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“one-third of its shear adhesion [51], as observed in gecko setae [52].”
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Alizadehyazdi, V., Bonthron, M., & Spenko, M. J. (2020) · Journal of Electrostatics · doi:10.1016/j.elstat.2020.103499 · Cited by 21
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“Particle R p Fig. 21.7 Model of interactions between gecko spatulae of radius Rs ,a spherical dirt particle of radius Rp, and a planar wall, enabling self-cleaning (after [ 54 ]) 21 Gecko Feet: Natural Hairy Attachment Systems for Smart Adhesion 713”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialViko: An Adaptive Gecko Gripper with Vision-based Tactile Sensor
Pang, C., Mak, K., Zhang, Y., Yang, Y., Tse, Y. A., & Wang, M. Y. (2021) · Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation/Proceedings · doi:10.1109/icra48506.2021.9561606 · Cited by 20
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BackgroundInvestigating environmental burdens and benefits of biologically inspired self-cleaning surfaces
Raibeck, L., Reap, J., & Bras, B. (2009) · CIRP journal of manufacturing science and technology · doi:10.1016/j.cirpj.2009.05.004 · Cited by 20
“Gecko feet exhibit self-cleaning properties which surprisingly help maintain the adhesive abilities of their feet [6].”
BackgroundSelf-Drying: A Gecko's Innate Ability to Remove Water from Wet Toe Pads
Stark, A. Y., Wucinich, N. A., Paoloni, E. L., Niewiarowski, P. H., & Dhinojwala, A. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0101885 · Cited by 20
“7% after eight simulated steps [6].”
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Stark, A. Y., Palecek, A., Argenbright, C. W., Bernard, C., Brennan, A. B., Niewiarowski, P. H., & Dhinojwala, A. (2015) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0145756 · Cited by 20
Adhesion of flat-ended pillars with non-circular contacts
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Mechanisms of self-cleaning in fluid-based smooth adhesive pads of insects
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“Contamination is also true for the adhesive setae of geckos, which have like the spinules to some extent a self cleaning property ( Hansen and Autumn, 2005 ).”
BackgroundPrinting semiconductor-based devices and circuits for flexible electronic skin
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Dispersion of Hydrophobic Co Supracrystal in Aqueous Solution
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BackgroundInfluentialGeckos cling best to, and prefer to use, rough surfaces
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Garner, A. M., Wilson, M. C., Russell, A. P., Dhinojwala, A., & Niewiarowski, P. H. (2019) · Integrative and Comparative Biology · doi:10.1093/icb/icz012 · Cited by 16
“Although these theories have been used to explain gecko adhesion (Autumn et al. 2002; Hansen and Autumn 2005; Huber et al. 2005; Autumn et al. 2006; Yao and Gao 2006), they fail to account for (or oversimplify) the potential impact of the complex, branching structure of gekkotan setae on adhesive force production of b…”
MethodAdvances in the computational modeling of the gecko adhesion mechanism
Sauer, R. A. (2012) · Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology · doi:10.1080/01694243.2012.691792 · Cited by 16
“Further recent experimental studies, that are not covered in this review, are given by Hansen and Autumn [3], Gravish et al. [4], Huber et al. [5], Pugno and Lepore [6], Chen and Gao [7], Puthoff et al. [8], and Hill et al. [9].”
MethodBio-inspired interfaces for easy-to-recycle lithium-ion batteries
Jin, C., Yang, Z., Li, J., Zheng, Y., Pfleging, W., & Tang, T. (2019) · Extreme Mechanics Letters · doi:10.1016/j.eml.2019.100594 · Cited by 16
“These micro-/nano-structures can exhibit repeatable adhesive strengths up to 200 kPa on even molecularly smooth surfaces [38].”
BackgroundBioinspired Smart Materials With Externally-Stimulated Switchable Adhesion
Wang, J., Wan, Y., Wang, X., & Xia, Z. (2021) · Frontiers in Nanotechnology · doi:10.3389/fnano.2021.667287 · Cited by 15
Zhang, T., Zhang, Z., Kim, K.-S., & Gao, H. (2012) · Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology · doi:10.1080/01694243.2012.691788 · Cited by 15
“Autumn et al. [31] reported that for isolated setae, seta array or the entire toe of gecko, there exists a forceindependent critical angle beyond which the adhered structure detaches spontaneously.”
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“This then allows us to make a theoretical estimate of the threshold diameter below which particle contamination of the arolium should occur, in an approach similar to that of Hansen and Autumn (Hansen and Autumn, 2005).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialGeckos Distributing Adhesion to Toes in Upside-down Running Offers Bioinspiration to Robots
Song, Y., Lu, X., Zhou, J., Wang, Z., Zhang, Z., & Dai, Z. (2020) · Journal of Bionic Engineering · doi:10.1007/s42235-020-0045-0 · Cited by 16
Koppetsch, T., Böhme, W., Büsse, S., & Gorb, S. N. (2020) · Zoologischer Anzeiger · doi:10.1016/j.jcz.2020.05.005 · Cited by 15
Murr, L. E. (2006) · JOM · doi:10.1007/s11837-006-0136-3 · Cited by 15
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Zhang, X., Kong, B., Tsui, O. K. C., Yang, X., Mi, Y., Chan, C., & Xu, B. (2007) · The Journal of Chemical Physics · doi:10.1063/1.2748383 · Cited by 15
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Izadi, H., Dogra, N., Perreault, F., Schwarz, C., Simon, S., & Vanderlick, T. K. (2016) · ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · doi:10.1021/acsami.5b09154 · Cited by 15
Adhesives with patterned sub-surface microstructures
Arul, E. P., & Ghatak, A. K. (2010) · Journal of Materials Science · doi:10.1007/s10853-010-4825-5 · Cited by 15
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Abusomwan, U., & Sitti, M. (2014) · Langmuir · doi:10.1021/la5022998 · Cited by 15
Pugno, N. M. (2010) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-15778-3_3 · Cited by 14
“Hansen and Autumn [23] have proved that gecko setae become cleaner with repeated use; this is probably a consequence of the hierarchical nature of the gecko foot, as we are going to demonstrate.”
BackgroundWang, L., Liu, M., Wu, Y., & Zheng, H. Y. (2022) · Nanomaterials · doi:10.3390/nano12203677 · Cited by 14
“[13] demonstrated that the bristles of geckos are an easy-cleaning adhesive, and that a gecko’s dusty feet need only a few steps to regain the ability to climb up a vertical wall.”
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Zhang, E., Liu, Y., Yu, J., Lv, T., & Li, L. (2015) · Journal of Materials Chemistry B · doi:10.1039/c5tb00605h · Cited by 14
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Song, W. (2014) · Nanoscale · doi:10.1039/c4nr04090b · Cited by 14
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Lavieja, C., Oriol, L. T., & Peña, J.-I. (2018) · Materials · doi:10.3390/ma11122547 · Cited by 14
“Nature has provided some examples of structures that affect the wettability properties, such as self-cleaning superhydrophobic surfaces on the Lotus leaf [1], hierarchical structures on plants [2], butterflies that exhibit directional wettability properties [3], or the adhesion properties of the Gecko toe [4].”
BackgroundThe moth specialist spider Cyrtarachne akirai uses prey scales to increase adhesion
Díaz, C., Maksuta, D., Amarpuri, G., Tanikawa, A., Miyashita, T., Dhinojwala, A., & Blackledge, T. A. (2020) · Journal of The Royal Society Interface · doi:10.1098/rsif.2019.0792 · Cited by 14
Bioinspired Structures and Design
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Alizadehyazdi, V., McQueney, E., Tanaka, K., & Spenko, M. J. (2018) · IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) · doi:10.1109/iros.2018.8594091 · Cited by 14
“Dust adsorption on a micro-structured surface can be minimized through several methods, including making the micro-structured features smaller than the size of the contaminants, increasing the roughness of the surface [7], and using stiff materials that have low surface energy [8].”
MethodSelf-cleaning textiles: structure, fabrication and applications
Afroz, S., Azady, M. A. R., Akter, Y., Ragib, A. A., Hasan, M. Z., Rahaman, M. S., & Islam, J. M. M. (2021) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-821483-1.00016-4 · Cited by 14
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“…is unable to use its claws because of reflexive responses that attempt to rid the adhesive plates of the dust [self-cleaning of the adhesive system (Hansen and Autumn, 2005) being inhibited because of the absence of uncontaminated surfaces upon which to release it], and is therefore restricted…”
Brely, L., Bosia, F., & Pugno, N. M. (2018) · Soft Matter · doi:10.1039/c8sm00507a · Cited by 12
“The hierarchical scheme of contact splitting has been described as a way to optimize surface adaptability [12] or self-cleaning abilities [13] and to avoid self-bunching [14], and has been extended not only to the hairy adhesive structures, but also to spider silk anchorages [15] [16] [17].”
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“attachment properties (Hansen and Autumn 2005).”
Fabrication of Bio-Inspired Elastomer Nanofiber Arrays with Spatulate Tips using Notching Effect
Kim, S., Sitti, M., Jang, J., & Thomas, E. L. (2008) · IEEE Conference on Nanotechnology (IEEE NANO) · doi:10.1109/nano.2008.233 · Cited by 12
“Furthermore, fibrillar structuring would increase the contamination rejection property of the adhesive [11].”
BackgroundFabrication of Biomimetic and Bioinspired Membranes
Abdelrasoul, A., Doan, H. D., & Lohi, A. (2017) · InTech eBooks · doi:10.5772/intechopen.71718 · Cited by 12
“The process of self-cleaning is a consequence of the energetic disequilibrium that occurs between the adhesive forces that attract a dirt particle to the substrate, and those that attract the same particle to one or more spatula [62, 63].”
BackgroundMechanics of Crater-Enabled Soft Dry Adhesives: A Review
Wang, L., Ha, K., Rodin, G. J., Liechti, K. M., & Lu, N. (2020) · Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering · doi:10.3389/fmech.2020.601510 · Cited by 12
“The inspiration came from terrestrial species including lizards and geckos whose toe pads are covered by intricate fibrils that enable strong attachment as well as easy release (Autumn et al., 2000; Autumn et al., 2002; Arzt et al., 2003; Gao and Yao, 2004; Hansen and Autumn, 2005; Yao and Gao, 2006).”
BackgroundPhysical Properties of Ceramic and Carbon Nanoscale Structures
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“Hansen and Autumn [23] have proved that gecko setae become cleaner with repeated use; this is probably a consequence of the hierarchical nature of the gecko foot, as we are going to demonstrate.”
BackgroundGecko‐Inspired Polymer Adhesives
Mengüç, Y., & Sitti, M. (2013) · doi:10.1002/9781118505175.ch9 · Cited by 12
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“With tremendous efforts devoted to the superwettability mechanism of organisms in nature including water striders legs [8], butterfly wings [9], rose and sunflower petals [10], lotus plant leaves [11], gecko foot [12], etc.”
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“Uniaxial FTs typically rely on fibre optic springs [65,72] or piezoelectric sensors [19].”
BackgroundPredicting wettability behavior of fluorosilica coated metal surface using optimum neural network
Taghipour‐Gorjikolaie, M., & Motlagh, N. V. (2017) · Surface Science · doi:10.1016/j.susc.2017.10.019 · Cited by 11
Temperature-induced tunable adhesion of gecko setae/spatulae and their biomimics
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Space Exploration - towards Bio-Inspired Climbing Robots
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“It has been theorised that this ability stems from the nanoscale structure of the hairs themselves, and should therefore be reproducible in synthetically produced materials (Hansen & Autumn, 2005).”
BackgroundBiomimetic Multi-Responsive Superwettable Materials for Oil–Water Separation
Rao, C., Yan, X., Guo, Z., & Liu, W. (2026) · Nano-Micro Letters · doi:10.1007/s40820-026-02222-8 · Cited by 10
Sekiguchi, Y., Takahashi, K. T., & Sato, C. (2015) · Journal of Physics D Applied Physics · doi:10.1088/0022-3727/48/47/475301 · Cited by 10
Friction Reduction and Motion Stability of Setal Array Sliding on Rough Surface
Cheng, Q., Yang, F., Yang, Z., Jiang, H. M., Zhu, Z., Liu, T., & Cai, H. (2023) · Tribology Letters · doi:10.1007/s11249-023-01784-7 · Cited by 10
“Setal arrays exhibit unique capabilities such as self-cleaning [8], controllable detachment [9, 10], maximized adhesion [11–13], and friction anisotropy [14, 15], which provide important inspiration for array bionic design and applications.”
BackgroundRahmawan, Y., Yoon, H., Moon, M., Jeong, H., & Suh, K. Y. (2012) · Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology · doi:10.1080/01694243.2012.693825 · Cited by 10
Experimental research of load effect on the anisotropic friction behaviors of gecko seta array
Jin, W., Tian, Y., Zhou, M. J., Xiang-Jun, Z., & Yong-Gang, M. (2012) · Acta Physica Sinica · doi:10.7498/aps.61.016202 · Cited by 10
Manufacturing Approaches and Applications for Bioinspired Dry Adhesives
Sameoto, D. (2017) · Biologically-inspired systems · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-59114-8_11 · Cited by 10
Skondras-Giousios, D., Karkalos, N. E., & Markopoulos, A. P. (2020) · Bioinspiration & Biomimetics · doi:10.1088/1748-3190/ab983e · Cited by 10
Hu, H., Shao, J., Tian, H., Li, X., & Jiang, C. (2016) · IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology · doi:10.1109/tnano.2016.2514849 · Cited by 10
“are greater than 150° and show a low contact angle hysteresis [1], [5]–[7].”
BackgroundMatsukizono, H., & Jin, R. (2011) · Langmuir · doi:10.1021/la2004547 · Cited by 10
Durable adhesives based on electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride) fibers
Sahay, R., Baji, A., Ranganath, A. S., & Ganesh, V. A. (2016) · Journal of Applied Polymer Science · doi:10.1002/app.44393 · Cited by 10
Gecko Feet: Natural Attachment Systems for Smart Adhesion
Bhushan, B., & Sayer, R. A. (2006) · Nanoscience and technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-540-37321-6_2 · Cited by 10
Roughness analysis for textured surfaces over several orders of magnitudes
Vepsäläinen, L., Stenberg, P., Pääkkönen, P., Kuittinen, M., Suvanto, M., & Pakkanen, T. A. (2013) · Applied Surface Science · doi:10.1016/j.apsusc.2013.07.085 · Cited by 9
Biological design and inspiration of bactericidal hierarchical interfaces
Muneer, M., Kalappurackal, H. P., Balachandran, A., & Lone, S. (2024) · RSC Applied Interfaces · doi:10.1039/d3lf00267e · Cited by 9
“41 The hairy structures that establish a 150 ° contact angle have bactericidal effects on some Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.”
Solution-Based Techniques for Biomimetics and Bioreplication
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Geckos go the Distance: Water's Effect on the Speed of Adhesive Locomotion in Geckos
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“So far, geckos are known to adhere exceptionally well to a variety of substrates, particularly those that are smooth and free of debris (Hansen and Autumn, 2005; Hu et al., 2012; Stark et al., 2012, 2013).”
BackgroundThe Role of Effective Elastic Modulus in the Performance of Structured Adhesives
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Biological design of materials
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Redefining stickiness – A reflection on the gecko inspired adhesives possessing self-cleaning traits
Basak, S. (2020) · Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology · doi:10.1080/01694243.2020.1851938 · Cited by 9
“of setae and are consistent with the adhesion models (Figure 3) [20].”
BackgroundMethodResultPVC gel bio-inspired adhesives with variable modulus and its application in a gripper
Zhang, H., He, Q., Tian, C., Wu, Y., Zhao, Z., & Yu, M. (2022) · Journal of Central South University · doi:10.1007/s11771-022-5050-5 · Cited by 9
Cleaning properties of dry adhesives
Téllez, J. P. D., Sameoto, D., & Menon, C. (2010) · Science China Technological Sciences · doi:10.1007/s11431-010-4125-y · Cited by 9
Fabrication and adhesion of hierarchical micro-seta
Zhang, H., Lianwei, W., Jia, S., Guo, D., & Dai, Z. (2012) · Chinese Science Bulletin · doi:10.1007/s11434-012-5076-4 · Cited by 9
Fabrication of high aspect ratio microfiber arrays that mimic gecko foot hairs
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Photoreversible Growth of Micropattern
Hou, H., Ma, X., Xu, H., Shi, Z., Yin, J., & Jiang, X. (2016) · Advanced Materials Interfaces · doi:10.1002/admi.201600528 · Cited by 8
Lamkin-Kennard, K. A., & Popović, M. B. (2019) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-812939-5.00008-2 · Cited by 8
Quantifying surface topography of biological systems from 3D scans
Martínez, A., Nguyen, D., Basson, M. S., Medina, J., Irschick, D. J., & Baeckens, S. (2021) · Methods in Ecology and Evolution · doi:10.1111/2041-210x.13603 · Cited by 10
“…enable drag reduction in sharks (Lauder et al. 2016), superblack coloration 308 in birds of paradise (McCoy et al. 2018), self-cleaning in geckos (Hansen & Autumn 2005), and determine 309 the coefficient of friction between biological surfaces and substrates (e.g. snakes: Hazel et al. 1999; 310…”
Metadata
- Authors
- Hansen, W. R., & Autumn, K.
- Affiliations
- Lewis & Clark College (US)
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- Corresponding author
- Autumn, K.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2005-01-03
- Volume
- 102
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 385-389
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC544316
- OpenAlex
- W2114147125
- Cited by
- 601
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 37 · 2015: 33 · 2014: 29 · 2013: 40 · 2012: 42
- FWCI
- 45.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0304730)
- Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanics of Materials › Adhesion, Friction, and Surface Interactions
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Surfaces, Coatings and Films › Surface Modification and Superhydrophobicity
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Advanced Materials and Mechanics
- Keywords
- gecko setae, self-cleaning, van der Waals adhesion, spatulae, Tokay gecko, dry adhesion, contact mechanics, synthetic adhesives
- MeSH terms
- Adhesiveness, Animals, Lizards, Models, Biological
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