Adhesion technology is indispensable in our daily life. Among them, it could be mentioned that adhesives are useful due to their ability to adhere by pressure only without chemical reactions. They are used in various fields such as the automobile and building industry. In order to improve adhesion/abhesion performance, it is important to analyze and control the molecular structure at the interface. However, there are few reports regarding analysis in the molecular scale. Therefore, we tried to clarify the mechanism of the adhesion/abhesion processes at molecular scale. A release agent, which is coated on the side of the adhesive tapes, is used for controlling the peel force of adhesive tape. The alkyl-side-chain polymer poly(ethylene-co-vinyl-n-octadecyl carbamate) (PEVODC) is widely used as a release coating. We investigated the structures and physical properties of PEVODC films whose peel force was reduced by annealing process at 100 °C. Although the surface free energy and the surface roughness were believed to be the crucial factors affecting peel force, we found their contribution to be rather insignificant. By using sum frequency generation (SFG) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) , the orientation and the crystallinity of the alkyl side chain of the polymer at the interface were found to be important factors affecting the peel force at the PEVODC/adhesive interface. A highly ordered crystalline domain generated by annealing process at the surface seems effective for the reduction of the peel force. Furthermore, it is indicated that intercalation of the polymer chains of both adhesives and release agents followed by the entanglement of polymers play an important role in the adhesion/abhesion process.

Surface and interfacial structure of alkyl-side-chain polymer film and its correlation with the peel force

254th National Meeting (2017)

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