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Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is an ideal coating material with superior chemical resistance, lubrication, and hydrophobicity. Multimaterial manufacturing with metal and PTFE is desirable for their complementary strengths, but non-robust bonding at the interface remains a significant challenge for durability. Here, we devise a strategy combining iron catalyst deposition and thermostatic control on a high-power laser to directly bond steel and pure PTFE. As a result, we achieve unprecedented peel strength surpassing 3.5 N/mm and stable chemical bond formation between the two materials. Furthermore, manufacturing a 10-ton truck's loading box with steel-PTFE composites proves the ultra-durable lubrication effect that enables zero load waste and 10.7 % CO2 reduction during repetitive soil transportation. Our novel method to control polymer decomposition at the metal-polymer interface should facilitate multimaterial manufacturing with superior mechanochemical durability.

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Crop genetic engineering for better root systems can offer practical solutions for food security and carbon sequestration; however, soil layers prevent direct visualization. Here, we demonstrate an original device with a distributed fiber-optic sensor for fully automated, real-time monitoring of underground root development. We demonstrate that spatially encoding an optical fiber with a flexible and durable polymer film in a spiral pattern can significantly enhance sensor detection. After signal processing, the resulting device can detect the penetration of a submillimeter-diameter object in the soil, indicating more than a magnitude higher spatiotemporal resolution than previously reported with underground monitoring techniques. We also developed computational models to visualize the roots of root crops and monocotyledons, and then applied them to radish and rice to compare the results with those of X-ray computed tomography. The device's groundbreaking sensitivity and spatiotemporal resolution enable seamless and laborless phenotyping of root systems that are otherwise invisible underground.