TAPE: A Medical Adhesive Inspired by a Ubiquitous Compound in Plants

Abstract

Adhesives play an important role in industrial fields such as electronics, architectures, energy plantation, and others. However, adhesives used for medical purpose are rather under‐developed compared with those used in industry and consumer products. One key property required for medical adhesives is to maintain their adhesiveness in the presence of body fluid. Here, an entirely new class of medical adhesives called TAPE is reported; this is produced by intermolecular hydrogen bonding between a well‐known polyphenol compound, tannic acid, and poly(ethylene glycol). The preparation method of TAPE is extremely easy, forming a few liters at once by just the simple mixing of the two compounds without any further chemical synthetic procedures. TAPE shows a 250% increase in adhesion strength compared with fibrin glue, and the adhesion is well maintained in aqueous environments. It is demonstrated that TAPE is an effective hemostatic material and a biodegradable patch for detecting gastroesophageal reflux disease in vivo. Widespread use of TAPE is anticipated in various medical and pharmaceutical applications such as muco‐adhesives, drug depots, and others, because of its scalability, adhesion, and facile preparation.

Wet and Functional Adhesives from One‐Step Aqueous Self‐Assembly of Natural Amino Acids and Polyoxometalates

“…[9,10] Notwithstanding the exciting successes,t he preparation of those materials usually involves multi-step procedures,t ime consuming process, harsh conditions,a nd toxic reagents.T hese synthetic chal-lenges and environmental concerns prompt scientists to seek natural substitutes.R ecently,L ee and co-workers have reported as imple strategy to produce wet adhesive (TAPE) via co-assembly of tannic acid and poly(ethylene glycol) in water. [11] Ther esulted adhesive showed higher adhesion strengths than that of the commercially available fibrin glue. Theauthors also demonstrated that the TAPE adhesives can act as an effective hemostatic material for detecting gastroesophageal reflux disease in vivo.…”

“…[8] Thea dhesives have significant potentials in other biomedical devices that require haemostatic treatment. [11] Ther esulted adhesive showed higher adhesion strengths than that of the commercially available fibrin glue. [9,10] Notwithstanding the exciting successes,t he preparation of those materials usually involves multi-step procedures,t ime consuming process, harsh conditions,a nd toxic reagents.T hese synthetic chal-lenges and environmental concerns prompt scientists to seek natural substitutes.R ecently,L ee and co-workers have reported as imple strategy to produce wet adhesive (TAPE) via co-assembly of tannic acid and poly(ethylene glycol) in water.…”

“…Furthermore,c ross-linked network structures could also be fabricated through multiple noncovalent interactions,r esulting in the advent of supramolecular adhesives with dynamic and switchable adhesion in response to environmental stimuli. [11] This non-covalent crosslinking strategy not only allows natural biomolecule-based adhesives to be developed, but also opens up awide variety of possibilities for integrating various components into single systems to create functional adhesives beyond simple adhesion. [11] Ther esulted adhesive showed higher adhesion strengths than that of the commercially available fibrin glue.…”

“…Theauthors also demonstrated that the TAPE adhesives can act as an effective hemostatic material for detecting gastroesophageal reflux disease in vivo. [11] This non-covalent crosslinking strategy not only allows natural biomolecule-based adhesives to be developed, but also opens up awide variety of possibilities for integrating various components into single systems to create functional adhesives beyond simple adhesion. Given the adhesive proteins are composed of al arge number of amino acids,w ea nticipated that the natural and renewable amino acid monomers may also form wet adhesives.…”

Water‐Triggered Self‐Healing Coatings of Hydrogen‐Bonded Complexes for High Binding Affinity and Antioxidative Property

“…TA, a natural polyphenol, endows the coatings with high binding affinity to different substrates and antioxidant capacities . TAs associate with PEGs into stable micrometer‐sized complexes through intermolecular hydrogen bond in neutral or acidic aqueous solution . With addition of NaCl, these complexes rapidly precipitate onto substrates under gravity and coalesce with each other to generate uniform soft coatings via hydrogen bonding.…”