Two faculty members and a research scholar of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) have developed a mechanism through which, a super glue would be 30 times more effective and could be used again and again.

Professor Ashutosh Sharma, Assistant Professor Animangsu Ghatak and research scholar Abhijit Majumder are working on a department of Science and Technology-funded project on “Adhesive and Friction on Soft Surfaces”.

Their research found that if holes are made into the glue’s polymer material, which are filled with air and oil — it required greater force to peel off the polymer. However, it could be reused as no glue is left behind in the process.

Ghatak told The Indian Express, “While working on soft elastic adhesives, I accidentally found out that if a pattern is introduced in the surface of adhesive polymer, its strength increases.”

In the later stage of the research, he introduced micro-channels inside the glue, which further increased the adhesive strength.