Natural biological materials have ingeniously evolved functional heterogeneous composite to bring into maximal efficacy from a fairly limited choice of elements and compounds. Over the past couple of decades, micro-nano etching (e.g. mimicking gecko bristle arrays) and surface chemical modifications (e.g. surface modification with catecholamine functional groups) have become mainstream in biomimetic adhesion design. Actually, Creeper can support a 22.9 t sperm whale within the palm-sized area (11.25 MPa), which utilizes the lignified polysaccharide mucilage in the sucker to adhere to hard/soft interface simultaneously. In this work, we develop a simple and robust strategy to to mimic the lignification behavior of creeper suckers. Crystallizable ionic liquid (1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium Bromide) was introduced into the polymer (Poly-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate) network. The explored ionic gel adhesive can successfully realize over 9.82 MPa reversible adhesion strength for rough interface and 406.87 J m<sup>−2</sup> peeling toughness for skin tissue. Accordingly, reversible phase-transition triggered by light and heat can realize the controlled adhere–detach recycle, which is expected to realize the application in bioelectronics, electronic processing, and machine handling.

Dendritic-crystal-reinforced ionic gel adhesive inspired by Creeper suckers

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