Insect attachment on crystalline bioinspired wax surfaces formed by alkanes of varying chain lengths

• Elena Gorb,
• Sandro Böhm,
• Nadine Jacky,
• Louis-Philippe Maier,
• Kirstin Dening,
• Sasha Pechook,
• Boaz Pokroy and
• Stanislav Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1031–1041, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.116

• Engineering and the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, 32000 Haifa, Israel 10.3762/bjnano.5.116 Abstract The impeding effect of plant surfaces covered with three-dimensional wax on attachment and locomotion of insects has been shown previously in numerous

• attachment and higher pull-off forces of polydimethylsiloxane probes on wax surfaces having a higher density of wax coverage, created by smaller crystals. Keywords: Coccinella septempunctata; insect–plant interactions; plant waxes; pull-off force; traction force; Introduction During their locomotion

Fibrillar adhesion with no clusterisation: Functional significance of material gradient along adhesive setae of insects

• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Alexander E. Filippov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 837–845, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.95

• various lineages of arthropods. Keywords: adhesion; attachment; biomechanics; computer modelling; cuticle; locomotion; material; surface; Introduction The contact formation of insect adhesive pads on various substrates depends on the pad ability to adapt to different surface topographies. The quality of

Magnesiothermic conversion of the silica-mineralizing golden algae Mallomonas caudata and Synura petersenii to elemental silicon with high geometric precision

• Janina Petrack,
• Steffen Jost,
• Jens Boenigk and
• Matthias Epple

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 554–560, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.65

• ]. Chrysophytes, and stramenopiles in general are heterokont, i.e., they have a long flagellum bearing tripartite hairs and a short flagellum without such hairs. The flagella are used for locomotion [19]. The chrysophytes are usually photoautotrophic even though some lineages of the Chrysophyceae have secondarily

Friction behavior of a microstructured polymer surface inspired by snake skin

• Martina J. Baum,
• Lars Heepe and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 83–97, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.8

• properties. In order to generate propulsion during locomotion high friction and to slide along the substrate low friction must be generated [1]. Additionally, a minimum abrasion rate is necessary to enable long lasting optimal frictional properties [1]. Thus, to facilitate effective locomotion, the ventral

• ability of the snakes to vary the effective elastic modulus by varying their body stiffness is useful to optimize their tribological properties in adaptation to different substrates and locomotion modes [2][36][37]. Given that the effective elastic modulus is varied in a highly optimized frictional system

The effect of surface anisotropy in the slippery zone of Nepenthes alata pitchers on beetle attachment

• Elena V. Gorb and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 302–310, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.35

• Knoll [15] could not show such an effect on insect locomotion. Whereas the morphology, distribution and origin of lunate cells, considered to be transformed stomatal guard cells, were later widely discussed in the literature [16][17][26][28][29], the experimental study to test the above hypothesis was

• attachment ability in the slippery zone of the N. alata pitcher was previously studied in experiments designed to test the anti-adhesive effect of the wax coverage. It was shown in behavioural experiments that intact surfaces covered with wax crystals hindered the locomotion of ants Iridomyrmex humilis, as

• previously reported for another pitcher surface, the peristome [8], where insect locomotion is also promoted in the downward pitcher direction and prevented in the upward one. Since de-waxed pitchers and polymer replicas showed very similar topographies, better performance of beetles on de-waxed pitcher

Biomimetic materials

• Wilhelm Barthlott and
• Kerstin Koch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 135–136, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.16

• only appeared on the market in 1999. Bionics concentrated in the first decades, in particular, on highly complex biomechanic problems: the hovering of humming birds and robot locomotion. Today a focal point is the incredibly specific diversity of biological materials, materials with micro and nano