Researchers have designed a UV-light controlled sticky material that can pick things up, a breakthrough that could one day lead to a Spiderman suit becoming a reality.

The material was inspired by gecko lizards, who are able to walk upside down on vertical surfaces.

The researchers tested the material as a pick-and-drop device like an arcade claw machine.

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Researchers have designed a UV-light controlled sticky material that can pick things up, a breakthrough that could one day lead to a Spiderman suit becoming a reality

HOW IT WORKS The material uses a gecko-foot like design. The surface has mushroom-shaped structures that help pick up or stick to whatever they're in contact with. The legs stick using Van Der Waals forces which cause neighbouring molecules to be attracted to each other. Although these forces are very weak, in gecko's the effect is multiplied by thousands of tiny hairs that cover their toes, allowing them to stick firmly to surfaces. Advertisement

The team of German researchers designed the material using azobenzene - a molecule that curls under UV light.

Dr Emre Kizilkan, a researcher at the Zoological Institute at Kiel University in Germany and lead author of the study, told Gizmodo: 'The global aim is to make an adhesive to climb surfaces for humans.'

Dr Kizilkan says that a 20 centimetre square piece of the material could pick up a man - but they still haven't tested it with people.

The material, which is called a bioinspired photocontrollable microstructured transport device (BIPMTD) uses a gecko-foot like design on top of a sticky azobenzene film - a molecule that curls under UV light.

The surface has mushroom-shaped structures that help pick up or stick to whatever they're in contact with

The surface has mushroom-shaped structures that help pick up or stick to whatever they're in contact with.

The legs stick using Van Der Waals forces which cause neighbouring molecules to be attracted to each other.

Although these forces are very weak, in gecko's the effect is multiplied by thousands of tiny hairs that cover their toes, allowing them to stick firmly to surfaces.

When the BIPMTD is illuminated with UV light, it curls up, minimizing its contact area with any flat surface its on, unsticking itself.

However, when the UV light is turned off, the material recovers its flat, sticky state.

When the material is illuminated with UV light, it minimizes its contact area with the surface its on, unsticking itself (right). However, when the UV light is turned off, the material recovers its flat, sticky state (left)

This allowed the researchers to control how sticky the material was for different types of objects.

They tested it by picking up flat, 2-D surfaces with the UV light off, and then turned the light on to curl it up so that it could stick to spherical objects.

The material could let go of the spherical objects by turning the light off again.

The material is especially useful because it doesn't leave any sticky residues and its effects are reversible.

The researchers suggest that the BIPMTD could be used for different applications, such as pick-and-drop systems for solid objects or robotic designs.

Or, it could be used to create a real-life spider suit that could let people climb walls.