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.