TY  - JOUR
AU  - Chen, Jian
AU  - Tan, Wenjun
AU  - Chen, Wenjie
AU  - Zhao, Jiahui
AU  - Tang, Yezhong
AU  - Gorb, Stanislav N.
AU  - Ji, Keju
AU  - Dai, Zhendong
PY  - 2026
TI  - Bioinspired structural adhesion and friction for harsh environments: From natural ingenuity to engineering
JO  - Friction
SN  - 2223-7690
SP  - 9441123
VL  - 14
IS  - 3
AB  - 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.
UR  - https://doi.org/10.26599/FRICT.2025.9441123
DO  - 10.26599/FRICT.2025.9441123