Nanotechnology: Aid for the new era Spiderman?
August 31st 2007 08:07
I recently read an article published in Technology review and found the topic very interesting. A carbon nanotube based adhesive tape has been developed after extensive research to aid climbing walls!
The study of this theory of developing adhesions based on the wall climbing skills of Spiders and Geckos has been going on for some time as an article was published in the Journal of Physics on August 2002 regarding this. Though climbing walls has been envisioned and portrayed for a long time, there have been no real developments to make this a reality.
This carbon nanotube based tapes can adhere onto a wide range of surface including glass by means of the Van der Waals forces, which are short range interactions in this case between the adhesive tape and the surface. This material has the qualities of a “gecko’s feet” by imitating it at a nanoscale level. The tape can be reused. This work was done in the University of Akron and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Work is currently under progress to increase the strength of the tape for commercial applications. This tape will have a wide range of application from aiding robots to climb walls to being used by astronauts especially as the material is reusable.
Though there is still a long way to go for humans to climb walls like lizards and spiders this adhesive tape has certainly increased my interest in this field.
The study of this theory of developing adhesions based on the wall climbing skills of Spiders and Geckos has been going on for some time as an article was published in the Journal of Physics on August 2002 regarding this. Though climbing walls has been envisioned and portrayed for a long time, there have been no real developments to make this a reality.
This carbon nanotube based tapes can adhere onto a wide range of surface including glass by means of the Van der Waals forces, which are short range interactions in this case between the adhesive tape and the surface. This material has the qualities of a “gecko’s feet” by imitating it at a nanoscale level. The tape can be reused. This work was done in the University of Akron and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Work is currently under progress to increase the strength of the tape for commercial applications. This tape will have a wide range of application from aiding robots to climb walls to being used by astronauts especially as the material is reusable.
Though there is still a long way to go for humans to climb walls like lizards and spiders this adhesive tape has certainly increased my interest in this field.
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