We demonstrate how the thermoplastic elastomer SEBS can successfully be used as an alternative to conventional thermoset elastomers like PDMS and polyurethane for the fabrication of mushroom shaped dry adhesives. An extremely simple and scalable compression molding system was used to fabricate mushroom shaped fibers directly from a silicone rubber mold in a few minutes, rather than hours. Two variations of thermoplastic elastomer dry adhesives were compared with a thermoset polyurethane counterpart, with one of them showing comparable or better performance in both isotropic and anisotropic performance. With the advantage of faster processing time, lower base material cost and scalability, the thermo-compression molding of thermoplastic elastomers is a viable alternative for the mass production of these mushroom shaped dry adhesives.
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