Diversified Material Designs in Biological Underwater Adhesives

Abstract

There exists in nature a wide variety of adhesives to meet the demands of underwater organisms. The requirements for attachment in aqueous environment are much more challenging than those in air. To achieve underwater attachment, sessile organisms ranging from microbes to hard and soft animals and plants have developed diversified ways to tightly and continuously attach to several material surfaces. These biological adhesives are excellent models from which to learn how to artificially attach materials in water and to obtain information that will be useful to develop general theories in the interface sciences. In this chapter, we compare biological material designs from the macroscopic to molecular levels to provide clues for designing new artificial adhesives. Specifically, we review how the mussel, barnacle, and tubeworm form firm underwater adhesion.