A “Spiderman” suit that enables its wearer to scale vertical walls like the comic and movie superhero could one day be a reality, according to a study.
Natural technology used by spiders and geckos could help a human climb the side of a building or hang upside down from a roof, the analysis suggests.
In 2002, US research suggested that adhesion in geckos was due to very weak intermolecular forces produced by the billions of hair-like structures which are arranged in a hierarchical structure on each gecko foot.
These “van der Waals” forces arise when unbalanced electrical charges around molecules attract one another.
The cumulative attractive force of billions of gecko hairs allows the reptiles to scurry up walls and even hang upside down on polished glass.
In respect to the obvious scale issue, the article says that:
“If we are able to make a surface a little bit stronger, so that the size effect vanishes, we might be able to make a suit with the same adhesion as a gecko.”
The Turin-based researcher proposes that carbon nanotubes could be used as an artificial alternative to the gecko’s hairs.
Carbon nanotubes are tiny cylinders of carbon that measure just a few billionths of a meter across. They are ultra-strong and can be organized into larger fibers.
This researcher also states that the theoretical suit would need to be sticky, but at the same time be able to detach from the surfaces in clings to quickly. It would also have to be able to clean itself of all the other particles that would adhered to it. Forget the spider-man suit, I’d take a self-cleaning dress shirt that I don’t have to wash or iron any day of the week.
Spiderman’ suit secrets revealed and Wired — Science: Nanotech Discovery Could Lead to Spiderman Suit
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