Bio-inspired reversible underwater adhesive

TLDR

Smart surfaces with switchable adhesion in wet environments remain challenging, despite progress in mimicking natural wet adhesion via catechol chemistry, polyelectrolyte complexes, and supramolecular architectures. The study presents a facile method to synthesize a bioinspired adhesive enabling reversible, tunable, and rapid regulation of wet adhesion on diverse surfaces. The adhesive employs host‑guest interactions, catechol chemistry, and a responsive polymer to enable temperature‑triggered, on‑demand activation of interfacial adhesion. The adhesive demonstrates performance surpassing natural counterparts, opening avenues for rational design of superior bioinspired adhesives.

Abstract

The design of smart surfaces with switchable adhesive properties in a wet environment has remained a challenge in adhesion science and materials engineering. Despite intense demands in various industrial applications and exciting progress in mimicking the remarkable wet adhesion through the delicate control of catechol chemistry, polyelectrolyte complex, and supramolecular architectures, the full recapitulation of nature's dynamic function is limited. Here, we show a facile approach to synthesize bioinspired adhesive, which entails the reversible, tunable, and fast regulation of the wet adhesion on diverse surfaces. The smart wet adhesive takes advantage of the host-guest molecular interaction and the adhesive nature of catechol chemistry, as well as the responsive polymer, allowing for screening and activation of the interfacial interaction simply by a local temperature trigger in an on-demand manner. Our work opens up an avenue for the rational design of bioinspired adhesives with performances even beyond nature.