Ants’ Cleaning Methods to Inspire Advancements in Nanotechnology
Cambridge University's Department of Zoology demonstrate how ants use their microscopic hair like brushes to clean themselves. Researches at the University believe this could potentially pave the way for development of 'nanotech cleaning' for small electronic devices.
A close-up film from Cambridge University showcasing how ants use microscopic ‘combs’ and ‘brushes’ to clean themselves, could potentially inspire development of nanotech cleaners.

Alexander Hackmann and his colleagues from Department of Zoology undertook the investigation of how ants use various types of hairs as cleaning apparatus to remove dirt from their antennae.

“Insects have developed ingenious ways of cleaning very small, sensitive structures, so finding out exactly how they work could have fascinating applications for nanotechnology – where contamination of small things, especially electronic devices, is a big problem,” said Hackmann.

Camponotus rufifemur ants have a specialized cleaning structure on their front legs with which they clean their antennae. The structure comprises of a notch and spur made from different hairs to form a device akin to a lobster claw. The antennae is pulled through this device, which consists of ‘bristles’, ‘comb’ and a ‘brush.’

“Different insects have all kinds of different cleaning devices, but no-one has really looked at their mechanical function in detail before,” added Hackmann.

Hackman and his team constructed an experimental mechanism which mimicked ant movements and cleaning method under a microscope. This enabled filming in extreme close up and measured the cleaning efficiency of the hairs with fluorescent particles.

The research team observed that different hair clusters performed different functions in the process. The antenna surface comes in contact with ‘bristles’ which removes the largest particles. The ‘comb’ removes smaller particles which could be trapped between the comb hairs. The ‘brush’ finally removes the smallest of particles from the antenna.

The ‘bristles and ‘comb’ are rigid and rounded while the ‘brush’ hairs are flat, flexible and contain ridges that increase contact with dirt particles. It is as yet unknown whether particles stick to hairs because of sticky secretions, electrostatic forces or a combination of all these.

“The arrangement of ‘bristles’, ‘combs’ and ‘brush’ lets the cleaning structure work as a particle filter that can clean different sized dirt particles with a single cleaning stroke,” said Hackmann.

“Modern nanofabrication techniques face similar problems with surface contamination, and as a result the fabrication of micron-scale devices requires very expensive cleanroom technology. We hope that understanding the biological system will lead to building bioinspired devices for cleaning on micro and nano scales.”

Image courtesy of Cambridge University