Orthogonal Control of Stability and Tunable Dry Adhesion by Tailoring the Shape of Tapered Nanopillar Arrays

Tapered nanopillar structures of different cross-sectional geometries including cone-, pencil-like, and stepwise are prepared from anodized aluminum oxide templates. The shape effect on the adhesion strength is investigated in experiments and simulation. Cone-shaped nanopillars are highly bendable under load and can recover after unloading, thus, warranting high adhesion strength, 34 N cm(-2) . The pencil-like and stepwise nano-pillars are, however, easily fractured and are not recoverable under the same conditions.