An adhesive material that provides fast and robust adhesion on wet surfaces, where the adhesion formed is detachable on-demand. The adhesive material is formed of one or more hydrophilic polymers or copolymers grafted with one or more amine coupling groups via a plurality of cleavable physical bonds and/or cleavable covalent bonds and one or more cross linkers. Application of the adhesive material on a wet surface causes the adhesive material to absorb liquid to thereby swell the adhesive material to form a layer of hydrogel, resulting in the formation of temporary crosslinks followed by covalent crosslinks with the surface. Introducing a triggering agent cleaves the cleavable physical bonds and/or cleavable covalent bonds to allow for non-traumatic detachment of the adhesive material from the surface.