Spider-Man would be so envious. Spiders have woven webs infused with carbon nanotubes and even graphene, raising the prospect of new materials with record-beating properties.
Graphene – sheets of carbon just one atom thick – is one of the strongest artificial materials, and spider silk is one of the strongest natural ones. So Nicola Pugno of the University of Trento, Italy, wondered what would happen if you combined them.
Pugno and his colleagues captured five spiders from the Pholcidae family and sprayed them with a mixture of water and graphene particles 200 to 300 nanometres wide. They also sprayed another 10 spiders with carbon nanotubes and water to compare the effects of the two materials.
via New Scientist
