If materials are to be bonded together in a wet environment, hydrogels often provide the answer. They consist of water and a polymer network. By combining various methods, researchers at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, have significantly improved the underwater adhesion of hydrogels.
The starting point was a data set with around 25,000 adhesive proteins that help mussels, for example, anchor themselves to wet surfaces. Using data mining, the researchers identified sequence patterns that influence this adhesion and used these results as the basis for producing 180 hydrogels, which they tested in the laboratory. An AI algorithm helped them select and optimize the best-performing candidates. The result was underwater adhesives with an unprecedented adhesive strength of more than one megapascal—enough to support 63 kilograms of weight with an adhesive surface the size of a postage stamp. As the hydrogels adhere immediately and are especially robust, they offer new possibilities in areas such as medical technology and deep-sea research.
