Dirk-Michael Drotlef

TL;DR: By infusing a ferrofluid into a microstructured matrix and applying a magnetic field, dynamic, multiscale topographical reconfigurations emerge, enabling functions such as colloidal self-assembly, switchable adhesion and friction, and biofilm removal.

TL;DR: A facile strategy to obtain magnetically actuated arrays of micropillars able to undergo reversible, homogeneous, drastic, and tunable geometrical changes upon application of a magnetic field with variable strength is demonstrated.

TL;DR: The results indicate that the surface structure in tree‐frog toe‐pads has been developed for climbing, when shear (friction) forces are involved.

TL;DR: The proposed load-sharing method suggests a paradigm for soft adhesion-based gripping and transfer-printing systems that achieves area scaling similar to that of a natural gecko footpad.

TL;DR: Gecko-inspired arrays of micropillars made of a liquid crystalline elastomer display thermoswitchable adhesive behavior as a consequence of elongation changes caused by reorientation of the mesogens at the nematic-isotropic (N-I) phase transition.