How would you stick a slice of banana to a sheet of copper?
Until a few months ago, you couldn’t.
But a new discovery called “hard-soft electroadhesion” enables chemists to stick almost any hydrogel to almost any metal, using nothing but an electric current.
And you can unstick the materials simply by reversing the current.
Recently reported in ACS Central Science, this astonishingly general phenomenon works with a wide variety of gels (including fruits, vegetables, meat and fish) and conductors (including metals and graphite).
Join our host George as he attempts to replicate electroadhesion in his basement and tries to discover what — if anything — this remarkable phenomenon shares with superglue.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress.
ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people.
ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
