Zhejiang: A team of Chinese scientists has developed a new polymer material so efficient that a feather-light amount can lift a heavy object, including an adhesive patch the size of a fingernail that can pull a car.

According to Namibia Press Agency, the scientists from Zhejiang University drew inspiration from ancient weaving techniques to intertwine flexible and rigid polymer chains at a molecular level, creating a material with exceptional strength and toughness. This significant development was detailed in a study published this week in the journal Nature Materials.

The scientists devised a method to "weave" the polymer chains together rather than simply mixing them. By using flexible polyurethane chains as a warp thread and rigid epoxy resin chains as a weft thread, they created a durable textile. This molecular architecture results in good performance, demonstrated by the material's lap shear strength, which is more than double that of conventional controls.

In a practical demonstration, a small piece of the adhesive, measuring only 2.5 by 1.3 centimeters, successfully towed a 2.1-tonne car. This approach opens up possibilities for designing advanced materials with customized properties for a variety of industrial applications.