Hydroxytyrosol: Bioinspired Nature-Based Adhesive Motif with Excellent Chemical Modifiability and Stability

Dopamine and its derivatives have been discovered as biomimetic adhesive motifs for various applications, but their affordability has been an obstacle to their practical realization. To address both high performance and productivity, we propose hydroxytyrosol as a nature-based adhesive motif. The productivity of hydroxytyrosol was overcome by the biosynthesis of hydroxytyrosol using glucose as the starting material. Because hydroxytyrosol is not easily autoxidized, hydroxytyrosol can be introduced into alkyl methacrylate through an unprotected one-pot transesterification reaction. The resulting adhesive copolymers with hydroxytyrosol as a side chain show adhesive properties comparable to those of the corresponding dopamine-containing polymers.