Researchers have determined that sticky spider silk could be used to help develop stronger and more efficient commercial and biomedical adhesives.
The adhesives could be used to attach tendons to bones or bind fractures, according to a recent study.
University of Akron (UA) researchers were able to create synthetic duplicates of the sticky silk "attachment discs," which spiders use in order to attach their webs to surfaces.
The discs are created when spiders pin down an underlying thread of silk with additional threads, like staples or stiches, according to Ali Dhinojwala, professor of polymer science and lead researcher on the project.
Through electrospinning, which is a process where an electrical charge is used to draw very fine fibres from a liquid, like polyurethane, Dhinojwala and his colleages used a staple-pin design by pinning down an underlying nylon thread with the electrospun fibres, according to the release.
"This adhesive architecture holds promise for potential applications in the area of adhesion science, particularly in the field of biomedicine where the cost of the materials is a significant constraint," said the authors of the paper.
Dhinojwala said that the design could eventually be used to make commercial adhesives stronger than conventional glue and tape, and to make medical applications.
"Instead of using big globs of glue, for example, we can use this unique and efficient design of threads pinning down a fibre," he added.
Research was published in the journal Polymer Physics recently.
"The inspiration was right in front of us, in nature. You can learn a lot of science from nature," said Dharamdeep Jain, a graduate student and co-author of the research paper, according to the release.
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