Adhesive materials inspired by gecko and mussel

After four and a half billion year evolution, creatures in nature possess almost perfect structures and properties, exhibiting the harmonization and unification between structure and function. Adhesive materials have a wide variety of practical applications in biomedical sciences, construction industry, and other fields. Inspired by biomaterials (such as gecko, mussel) with the special adhesive property, great effort has been devoted to fabricating bio-inspired adhesive materials. According to the adhesive mechanism, adhesive materials can be classified in two categories, reversible adhesion and permanent adhesion. For the gecko, the reversible adhesion can be attributed to the cooperation of micro/nano hierarchical structures of gecko toes and van der Waal's force between solid surfaces and keratinous setae. For the mussel, the glue proteins secreted by marine mussels can bind strongly to all inorganic and organic surfaces in aqueous environments. This review summarizes the recent work in biomaterials with special adhesion and the corresponding bio-inspired adhesive materials, with a focus on the gecko and mussel. The research prospects and directions of bio-inspired adhesive materials in the future are also briefly addressed.