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• Bioinspired functionalization of rare earth oxide (REO). • In one-step procedure, from petal effect switching to lotus one. • (Super)hydrophobic materials with tunable adhesion and fractal-like structures. • Material, physicochemical and magnetic features of pristine and modified REO. According to the developed bioinspired method in the one-step procedure, the material with the petal effect was switched to lotus one. Therefore, highly hydrophobic and super-hydrophobic materials with tunable adhesive properties and fractal-like structures were successfully produced with high efficiency (67–84%). The work's essence was to modify chemically selected powders of lanthanide oxides (CeO 2 , Pr 6 O 11 , Nd 2 O 3, and Gd 2 O 3). High effectiveness of the functionalization process with 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane (FC6) and n-octyltriethoxysilane (C6) was proven by various techniques, e.g. XPS, HR-TEM, ATR, XRD, zeta potential. Materials with water contact angle between 143.6° (CeO 2 -C6) and 175.5° (Nd 2 O 3 -FC6) with thermally stable nanolayer (up to 380 °C) were generated. Surfaces functionalized with FC6 possessed a polar component of surface free energy (SFE) close to zero. Water behavior in contact with the modified materials was studied, taking into consideration the unique electron structure of lanthanides assessed by goniometric measurement, also adhesion and spreading pressure were determined. Very low adhesion and polar SFE partly resulted in immediate bouncing of water droplet upon contact with the modified surface. The presented method allows preparing stable materials with a high potential in materials chemistry and modulation of surface features and engineering (e.g. heat transfer fluids, specific coating). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]