Advanced cohesion of mussel-inspired adhesives by switchable β-sheet segments

Biomimetic approaches to achieve the difficult task of under water adhesion have become more and more focus of material science over the past decades. Marine mussels master their attachment onto surfaces under the difficult conditions of the waveswept intertidal zone of the seashores by accurately mediating adhesion and cohesion in their holdfast. This project aims to develop novel mussel-inspired adhesives that mimic the adhesive behavior through generation of L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine bearing segmented protein analogues that are produced in an enzyme-mediated polymerization process. Additionally cohesion can be triggered by incorporation of switchable β-sheet segments that induce self-assembly and advanced intermolecular interactions to combine multiple aspects that contribute to under water gluing performance.