Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Arkansas and National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed a synthetic skin inspired by snake scales to solve friction problems in machines.

In a bid to reduce the loss of energy experienced by machines — ranging from robots to automobiles — when components rub together and create friction, the team employed a tool called solid-liquid interfacial polymerization (SLIP) to apply thin layers of synthetic skin onto surfaces composed of rubber or elastomers.

A new kind of synthetic "skin" applied to a stretchy material to spell out the word "SLIP." Source: Ding lab/University of Colorado at Boulder

According to developers, typically sticky surfaces composed of rubber or elastomer were made slick with the addition of snake-scale like synthetic skin onto a base layer of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which is an elastic material commonly used in medical technologies.

Using the SLIP technique, small molecules were combined into a film of liquid and light was used to “nudge” them out of suspension, eventually infiltrating the PDMS and thereby forming the hybrid skin layer.

In the lab, the team demonstrated via a series of tests, with weights attached to both treated and untreated PDMS, that the snakeskin-like PDMS would slide down even subtle inclines whereas the untreated PDMS would not.

The research team is eyeing the material for surface applications including soft robotics and wearable sensors, and to treat other surfaces that cannot be treated with liquid lubricants.

The research appears in the American Chemical Society journal Applied Materials & Interfaces.