PREVIEW

Scientists have engineered a new material that mimics Spider-Man's iconic sticky web fluid

While working on a separate project focused on strong adhesives, the team at Tufts University in Massachusetts discovered that silk from silk moth cocoons can be transformed into a shootable, sticky protein solution with remarkable similarities to Spider-Man’s webs.

The silk liquid can be shot from a device and solidifies upon contact with air, forming a string capable of lifting objects over 80 times its own weight. “If you look at nature, you will find that spiders cannot shoot their web,” explains Marco Lo Presti of Silklab, the study's lead author. “They usually spin the silk out of their gland, physically contact a surface, and draw out the lines to construct their webs. We are demonstrating a way to shoot a fibre from a device, then adhere to and pick up an object from a distance.”

To create these superhero-inspired silk threads, the researchers boiled and washed silk moth cocoons to extract silk fibroin, the fibrous protein in silk. Previous studies showed that combining silk fibroin with dopamine can produce strong bioadhesives. The Tufts team found that adding dopamine to their mix triggered rapid solidification by pulling water from the silk, resulting in sticky fibres with high tensile strength.

The fibres were spun in the air using a needle, where a layer of acetone triggered the solidification process. As the acetone evaporated, the exposed sticky silk fibre adhered to objects. “Rather than presenting this work as a bio-inspired material, it’s really a superhero-inspired material,” says Lo Presti.

By incorporating chitosan and a borate buffer, the team significantly improved the fibres’ tensile strength and adhesiveness. The result is a thin fibre, sometimes as fine as human hair, capable of lifting objects far heavier than itself. The team successfully demonstrated its use by lifting a variety of objects, from a steel bolt to a scalpel partially buried in sand.