Sticky fingers: Adhesive properties of human fingertips

Fingertip friction is a rather well studied subject. Although the phenomenon of finger stickiness is known as well, the pull-off force and the adhesive strength of human finger tips have never been previously quantified. For the first time, we provided here characterization of adhesive properties of human fingers under natural conditions. Human fingers can generate a maximum adhesive force of 15 mN on a smooth surface of epoxy resin. A weak correlation of the adhesive force and the normal force was found on all test surfaces. Up to 300 mN load, an increase of the normal force leads to an increase of the adhesive force. On rough surfaces, the adhesive strength is significantly reduced. Our data collected from untreated hands give also an impression of an enormous scattering of digital adhesion depending on a large set of inter-subject variability and time-dependent individual factors (skin texture, moisture level, perspiration). The wide inter- and intra-individual range of digital adhesion should be considered in developing of technical and medical products.