Modular co-assembly of peptides and polyoxometalates into underwater adhesives with photoluminescence and adjustable adhesion.

Supramolecular polymerization between cationic peptides and anionic polyoxometalates has emerged as a promising strategy for the creation of peptide-based biomimetic underwater adhesives. However, the extremely rigorous requirements for peptide design are an important obstacle to the fabrication of available peptide adhesives with controlled adhesion and versatile functionality. Inspired by marine sessile organisms in nature, here we reported a modular co-assembly method to easily produce peptide/polyoxometalate underwater adhesive materials through mixing two complementary cationic peptides (Pep1 and Pep2) with a single anionic polyoxometalate K