Scientists Draw Inspiration from Catchweed to Create Biodegradable Velcro

upstart writes:

Scientists draw inspiration from catchweed to create biodegradable Velcro:

Velcro is an ingenious hook-and-loop fastener inspired by nature-specifically, cockleburs. Now scientists at the Italian Institute of Technology are returning the favor. They have created the first biodegradable Velcro-inspired by climbing plants-and used it to build small devices to help monitor the health of crop plants and deliver pesticides and medicines as needed, according to a November paper published in the journal Communications Materials.

Velcro's creator was a Swiss engineer named George de Mestral, who combined his love of invention with a passion for the great outdoors. After finishing school, he took a job in the machine shop of a Swiss engineering company. In 1948, de Mestral took a two-week holiday from work to go game bird hunting. While out hiking with his Irish pointer in the Jura Mountains, he was plagued by cockleburs (burdock seeds), which clung relentlessly to both his clothing and his dog's fur.

It was so difficult to disentangle the tenacious seed pods that de Mestral became intrigued by how they were constructed and examined a few under a microscope. He noticed that the outside of each burr was covered with hundreds of tiny hooks that grabbed into loops of thread, or in the dog's case, fur. And it gave him an idea for a similar manmade fastener.

[...] Co-author Isabella Fiorello and her colleagues were interested in developing innovative new technologies for monitoring plants in situ to detect disease, as well as delivering various substances to plants. However, few such devices can be attached directly to plant leaves without damaging them. The best current options are sensors attached with chemical glues, or with clips. There are also micro-needle-based patches under development able to penetrate leaves for disease detection.

Fiorello et al. found inspiration in the common catchweed plant (Galium aparine). It can form dense, tangled mats on the ground, and while the plants can grow up to six feet, they can't stand on their own and instead must use other plants for support. For this purpose, catchweed plants rely on a "unique parasitic ratchet-like anchoring mechanism to climb over host plants, using microscopic hooks for mechanical interlocking to leaves," the authors wrote.

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.