Mussel foot protein inspired tape-type adhesive with water-responsive, high conformal, tough and on-demand detachable adhesion to wet tissue.

Wet adhesion is highly demanded in non-invasive wound closure, tissue repair and biomedical devices, but it is yet a big challenge for developing biosafe and tough wet bioadhesive due to low or even non-adhesion in wet state for conventional adhesives. Inspired by the wet-adhesion-contributing factors of mussel foot proteins, we make a water-responsive dry robust tissue adhesive tape with thickness of <0.5 mm through fast UV-initiated copolymerization of acrylic acid (AA), gelatin (Gel), and hexadecenyl-1,2-catechol (UH). The tape shows strong cohesive mechanical properties and strong interfacial adhesion bonds. Upon application onto wet tissue, the adhesive tape can conform to the tissue, quickly dry tissue surface through absorbing surface/interfacial water and then allows formation of interfacial bonding with a high interfacial toughness of ∼818 J·m -2 . Furthermore, it can be readily detached by treating with aq. urea solution. This work may provide a highly efficient avenue for producing conformable, tough and easy detachable wet bioadhesive tapes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.