Latest gecko-type glue is stickier
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A new type of dry glue designed to mimic gecko feet is 10 times stickier than the gravity-defying lizards and three times stickier than similar glues, U.S. researchers said Thursday.
A 1-inch square can support a 220-pound man climbing up a vertical surface, but it can be easily lifted and reapplied, the researchers reported in the journal Science.
Like other gecko-inspired glues, the new glue uses a carpet of carbon nanotubes, thin filaments of carbon molecules. But attached to the ends of these filaments are curly strands of carbon that expand the surface area of the glue’s gripping action.
