A Spiderman-inspired silk and web shooter created by Tufts University

Scientists have created a sticky substance that can lift large objects and is fired from a device, modeled after Spiderman.

They have been working on developing a fiber that resembles the tethers of moths, spiders, and other insects.

It was difficult, according to Tufts University researchers, to create fibers with the elasticity, stiffness, and adhesive qualities of spider silk.

Advanced Functional Materials published this accidental discovery.

How is the adhesive created?

When fibroin solutions were subjected to solvents like acetone for several hours, they formed a semi-solid gel, which researchers discovered when attempting to reproduce the spider's thread.

Dopamine was used to quicken the process of solidification in order to produce high-tensile sticky fibers.

They went on to explain how a thin stream of silk solution became sticky when it was injected through a particular needle and encircled by a layer of acetone. The fiber sticks to every surface it comes into touch with after the acetone evaporates.

The fibers' tensile strength increased by up to 100 times and their adhesiveness improved by 18 times when chotisan, a protein present in insect exoskeletons, was introduced.

The diameter of the fiber may be controlled by scientists to be as small as a human hair or as large as almost half a mile thanks to the bore of the needle. Under certain circumstances, fibers injected in this manner may lift objects 80 times their own weight.

“This process can be finely tuned to achieve a controlled fabrication of instantly formed adhesive hydrogel fibers. It’s superhero-inspired material," Dr. Lo Presti said, one of the researchers of the paper.