Quick search Find article
Quick search
Find article

Towards a Spiderman suit: large invisible cables and self-cleaning releasable superadhesive materials

Nicola M Pugno

Show affiliations


Spiders can produce cobwebs with high strength to density ratio and surprisingly display self-cleaning, strong and releasable adhesion (like geckos). Nanointerlocking, capillary and van der Waals forces, all potential adhesive mechanisms, are thus discussed, demonstrating the key role played by hierarchy in the design of superhydrophobic, i.e. self-cleaning (dry or wet and enhanced by activating Fakir drops as in lotus leaves) and superadhesive materials. The reversibility of the strong attachment is quantified thanks to an improved nonlinear peeling model including friction, for which the solution in closed form is provided. Thus, mimicking nature, thanks to carbon-nanotube-based technology, we suggest the feasibility of large invisible cables, as well as of self-cleaning, superadhesive and releasable hierarchical smart materials. We found that a man can theoretically be supported by a transparent cable with cross-section of 1 cm2 and feasibly, with spider material gloves and boots, could remain attached even to a ceiling: a preliminary step towards a Spiderman suit.


PACS

81.16.Fg Supramolecular and biochemical assembly

68.03.Kn Dynamics (capillary waves)

68.35.Np Adhesion

68.08.De Liquid-solid interface structure: measurements and simulations

Subjects

Soft matter, liquids and polymers

Surfaces, interfaces and thin films

Nanoscale science and low-D systems

Dates

Issue 39 (3 October 2007)

Received 9 February 2007, in final form 25 March 2007

Published 30 August 2007



Users also read

What's this?
This innovative new feature generates a list of articles 'also read' by other users based on them reading the original article. Article abstracts citations and references are all considered and weighted accordingly. We hope that this will help you find relevant papers for your research.

  1. Non-sticking drops
  2. On the strength of the carbon nanotube-based space elevator cable: from nanomechanics to megamechanics

View by subject




Export








Please login to access our web services, or create an account if you don't yet have one.

You must have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to login.

Username
Password

Forgotten your password? Get a new one here.