On Thursday, the U.S. researchers reported that a new type of dry glue, created to copy gecko feet is 10 times stickier than the gravity-defying lizards, and three times stickier than other gecko-based glues. 

Liming Dai of the University of Dayton, who reported on the glue in the journal Science, said that it is the stickiest dry glue till date. 

The uniqueness of this glue is that just a nominal amount of 1-inch of this dry glue can support a man of 220-pound (100-kg) who is climbing up a vertical surface, and further it can be easily lifted and reapplied. Doesn’t it make it an ideal material for a Spider-Man suit? 

However, Zhong Lin Wang of Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, while referring to the comic book superhero's wall-climbing ability, said, “That is not real. What we do is real.”

During a telephonic interview with Wang and Dai, they informed that this glue apart from the purpose of climbing vertical walls can also be used in electrical components without the need for soldering. 

One more advantage of this glue is that it can be used at very low temperatures such as in space, since it is dry. In such temperature, normal glues often lose their grip. 

“Like other gecko-inspired glues, the new glue uses a carpet of carbon nanotubes. Attached to the ends of these filaments are curly strands of carbon that expand the surface area of the glue's gripping action,” reported Wang. 

The geckos have feet that have microscopic hairs that grow in different directions, and this design has similar structure. 

Dai further said, “Our sticky glue has a force 10 times that of gecko feet and three times more than previous sticky glues trying to mimic the gecko feet.” Dai, in order to create the glue, has worked with teams from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory near Dayton and the University of Akron. 

“The design is meant to maximize the effect of atomic-scale attractive forces known as van der Waals forces. When the curly parts of the tubes are pressed onto a surface, the tubes become aligned with the surface, forming a strong bond. But, when lifted at an angle, this bond is broken,” said Dai.  

While Wand exemplifies a foot stuck in mud, which when pulled straight up stays stuck, but when slowly peeled away, it gets released.