| Abstract Scope |
Strong, reversible adhesion in wet or underwater environments remains a significant challenge for applications ranging from biomedical devices to marine robotics. In nature, organisms like the octopus achieve rapid, controllable attachment to submerged surfaces by combining geometric design, active control, and surface functionality. Here, we present octopus-inspired adhesives that integrate tunable geometry with chemically modified active membranes to enable switchable, high-performance underwater adhesion. Systematic experiments reveal how contact geometry and surface chemistry govern attachment strength. Adhesion strength is switched over 1000× from the ON to OFF state in <50 ms over many cycles and exhibit robust attachment to diverse substrates, including rough and curved surfaces. Our findings demonstrate how the interplay of geometry and chemistry can be harnessed to advance bio-inspired underwater adhesives with rapid, reliable, and tunable performance. |