Question

The gecko is a reptile with an amazing ability to climb smooth surfaces, including glass. Recent discoveries indicate that geckos stick to smooth surfaces via Van der Waals interactions between septae on their feet and the smooth surface. Use your knowledge of how Van der Waals interactions work to answer the following questions labeled A & B.

A: How is this method of stickiness advantageous over covalent interactions?

B: Given that Van der Waals forces are among the weakest molecular interactions, how can the gecko's feet stick so effectively?

(Please no super-super long answers if possible)

Answer 1

A. Covalent interactions are permanent interactions and the energy required to break these interactions is huge. Whereas the van der Waals interactions are weak non covalent interactions which can be broken easily by applying very little amount of energy. Hence the vanderwaals interactions uses little amount of energy to form and to break and hence the gecko uses very little amount of energy. If you use covalent interactions, the energy used will be more and is disadvantageous. Hence the vanderwaals interactions is advantageous over covalent interactions.

2. Vanderwaals interaction maybe among the weakest interaction, but many vanderwaals interaction will be forming between the feet of gecko and the glass surface thereby increasing the grip of gecko over the surface.

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