Scientists are looking to nature for bioinspired adhesion and friction materials. Geckos, tree frogs and octopuses all provide scientists with the inspiration for these materials. Current research focuses mostly on a single environment or single performance for these materials, lacking a systematic framework across scales, media, and disciplines. A research team has proposed a framework that overcomes these barriers by creating highly adaptable, multifunctional systems for bioinspired adhesion and friction materials. Potential applications range from space environments that are tolerant of robotics for lunar exploration to self-adjusting biomedical devices for health monitoring.
Their work is published in the journal Friction on March 13, 2026.
The research team notes that there is an increasing demand for adaptive interfacial control
across harsh conditions, from deep-space microgravity to deep-sea hydrostatic pressure. This demand has propelled bioinspired structural adhesion/friction materials (SAFMs) into a transformative scientific frontier.
Scientists are developing bioinspired SAFMs that solve a wide range of engineering challenges in harsh environments on land, in the deep sea, and in deep space. “Over millions of years, biological organisms have developed remarkable interfacial mastery powered by multiple physics mechanisms at varying scales,” said Keju Ji, a professor at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
For example, in nature, the gecko lizard harnesses hierarchical fibrillar architecture, a design where branching fiber networks give the gecko exceptionally strong and flexible adhesive properties. The octopus uses specialized muscular cups on its arms to grip and manipulate surfaces. The tree frog uses its toe pads with their bumpy skin texture and secreted fluid to grip surfaces. These examples of the gecko, octopus, and tree frog exemplify a universal design principle. “The interplay of molecular chemistry, microstructural geometry, and macroscale mechanics lies at the core of environmentally robust biointerfaces,” said Ji.
Scientists have made great strides in developing bioinspired SAFMs the past five years. For example, microgravity-capable grippers inspired by the gecko now successfully immobilize cargo aboard the International Space Station. Astronauts use bionic adhesive shoes in space, as a solution to their lower limb muscle exercise problems. A wearable soft gripper embedded with nitinol has been operated in the ocean by the Deep Sea Warrior submersible at depths of 1,410 to 3,600 meters.
Yet even with these notable achievements in harsh environments, scientists face some tradeoffs with bioinspired SAFMs. These tradeoffs include fabrication resolution vs. scalability, robustness vs. adaptability, and functional augmentation vs. structural integrity. “For example, deep-sea robotic adhesion mechanisms perform well under high pressure but have difficulty adapting to extreme temperature differences and vacuum or irradiation environments in space,” said Ji.
The team focused their study on cutting-edge applications that included medical patches, wearable electronics, switchable grippers, and soft robots. Their analysis showed that current state-of-the-art synthetic systems, which are often limited to use in a single environment, failed to match the robustness of the natural systems. To overcome these challenges, the team proposed a 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 and 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,” said Ji.
Looking ahead, the research team notes that one of the goals is to move beyond single-function biomimicry, toward intelligent structural adhesion and friction materials that can operate across different environments and even outperform the creatures that inspired the material. “Converging biology, materials science, and artificial intelligence, future systems may achieve self-optimizing robotic manipulators for extraterrestrial infrastructure repair or neutrally integrated surgical grippers adapted to in vivo biochemical gradients. Realizing this vision demands sustained interdisciplinary collaboration bridging evolutionary biology, nanoengineering, and computational autonomy to propel structural adhesion and friction materials into the next frontier of adaptive matter,” said Ji.
The research team includes Jian Chen, Wenjie Chen, Jiahui Zhao, Keju Ji, and Zhendong Dai from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China; Wenjun Tan and Yezhong Tang from Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; and Stanislav N. Gorb from the Zoological Institute of the University of Kiel.
This research is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Space Medical Experiment Project of the China Manned Space Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Defense Industrial Technology Development Program.
D OI Link:
https://doi.org/10.26599/FRICT.2025.9441123
Friction
Bioinspired structural adhesion and friction for harsh environments: From natural ingenuity to engineering
13-Mar-2026