Bioinspired structural adhesion and friction for harsh environments: From natural ingenuity to engineering

The increasing demands for adaptive interfacial control across harsh conditions, from deep-space microgravity to deep-sea hydrostatic pressure, have propelled bioinspired structural adhesion/friction materials (SAFMs) into a transformative scientific frontier. Guided by nature’s evolutionary masterstrokes, the hierarchical fibrillar architecture of the gecko enables anisotropic van der Waals adhesion, and the muscular-hydrodynamic suction synergies of the octopus have engineered interfaces with unprecedented environmental adaptability. Despite breakthroughs in robotics and biomedicine, synthetic SAFMs persistently lag behind their biological counterparts in three dimensions: structural hierarchy fidelity, dynamic stability under cross-media disturbance, and adaptability to concurrent multiple environments. Through a comparative analysis of biotic/abiotic mechanisms, we demonstrate how current state-of-the-art synthetic systems, which are often limited by single-environment optimization or manufacturing-compromised structural hierarchies, fail to match the robustness of natural systems. To overcome these barriers, we propose a codesigned framework that integrates multiple mechanism synergies, multiple functional material networks, and bioinspired fabrication technologies. By bridging these domains, the framework aims to realize multiple environmentally adaptive bioinspired adhesions/frictions that transcend current application silos from space environments that are tolerant of robotics for lunar exploration to self-adjusting biomedicine devices for health monitoring.