Octopus chemical?

I was just hearing on NPR the other day that some marine bio researchers have discovered that octopuses actually secrete a chemical on their skin that acts as a repellent to their own suction cups on their arms. Without this chemical, the octopus would fold up on itself and not be able to release the suction cups on its body. When I heard this, I almost instantly thought of when we talked about the little pads on the bottom of geckos’ feet and how these little suction pads are able to hold the gecko on vertical surfaces because of van der Waals forces they create with the surface they interact with. It might make sense that these suction cups would have some hydrophobic residues in them since a suction underwater can only occur by the removal of water between the suction cup and the object its stuck to. This would provide an environment in which hydrophobic forces would be incredibly strong. I wonder, maybe this chemical secreted by the octopus coats its skin in polar/charged residues that repel the hydrophobic/nonpolar suction cups? Just a thought!