Carbon Nanotubes Make Superglue Look Silly

New material will change the face of glue forever

Scientists at the University of Dayton, Ohio and Georgia Institute of Technology have come up with a new adhesive that mimics the behavior of gecko's feet, which means that not only is it the strongest ever made, it's also the easiest to take off.

The feet of the gecko are covered in small hair called setae, which have branches at the end, called spatulae. When the gecko puts its foot on, say, a wall, the setae spread and increase the total surface area that's in contact with the wall. Thanks to molecular forces between the wall and the setae, the gecko's relatively small foot can hold its entire body up.

Using carbon nanotubes, the scientists have created a similar structure to create an adhesive pad that is effectively a nanotube forest. They tested a square centimeter of the pad on materials ranging from Teflon to sandpaper, and found that it can support up to 1.6 kg when pulled parallel to the surface. This means that if you're light (and strong) enough, you could coat your hands with this stuff and be able to pull off a Spider-Man-like wall-climb if you wished.

The best part, however, is that like the gecko, you can un-stick this pad just by pulling it in the right direction -- in this case, perpendicular to the surface you're stuck to. Which means that if you try clinging to ceilings, you're going to wind up a bloody mess on the ground.