The presence of catechol moieties in wet bioadhesives is crucial for function. Unfortunately, the catechol unit is difficult to introduce into synthetic systems due to oxidation and to overcome this challenge, the Hawker, Kramer and Waite groups have developed new chemistry which allows surfaces and objects to be fabricated with catechol functionalized surfaces. Significantly, adhesion strength was proportional to the concentration of catechol with the fabricated microstructures showing dramatic wet adhesive properties on oxide surfaces (Figure).
