Bio-inspired Polyphenolic Adhesives for Medical and Technical Applications

Nature has been developing adhesives for millions of years, mankind for just a few thousands of years. For this reason it is worth having a closer look at what nature does and how we can develop bio-inspired adhesives for technical and medical applications. Some examples of natural materials which have already been used for technical adhesives are casein, latex rubber, tree gum, and adhesives derived from natural sources used for the waterproofing of natural textiles, the production of paper, and the sealing of jars (

Papov et al., 1995

;

Creton and Papon, 2003

). Bio-inspired adhesives can be found in all areas of the natural world. Because of their origin, those adhesives are also called biological adhesives or bioadhesives and they fulfill several different functions (

Smith and Callow, 2006

;

Carrington, 2008

;

Antonietti and Fratzl, 2010

). Plants use adhesives, for example, for self-healing and for protecting themselves against wood defects, while animals use sticky materials for protecting themselves against predators and for hunting prey (

Keckes et al., 2003

;

Schreiber et al., 2005

;

Flammang, 2006

;

Voigt and Gorb, 2008

;

Plaza et al., 2009

). Microorganisms use adhesive material for settlement, surface attachment, and colonization (

Melzer et al., 2008

;

Flammang et al., 2009

;

Santos et al., 2009

;

Scholz et al., 2009

). Higher organisms, such as humans, rely on an inducible adhesive system: the wound healing promoter fibrinogen ((

Berlind et al., 2010

), which is discussed in detail in Chapter 15, p. 225 of this book).