During a career of developing a wide variety of pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) at the 3M Company, the author sought to use as much polymer science and engineering knowledge as possible to streamline the process. The Fox equation was used to predict the glass transition temperature of miscible blends and theories of Graessley were used to predict the plateau modulus for blends of elastomers with various tackifiers and plasticizers in rubber based adhesive formulations. Random crosslinking theories were applied to predict the effect of radiation cure levels on the gelation of rubber based adhesives with different starting molecular weight distributions. The gelation theories of Winter were applied to the use of low frequency dynamic mechanical properties to identify the state of gelation of adhesive systems. Beyond the effects of formulation and cure on mechanical properties, the author also sought to quantitatively connect the rheological master curve (well understood to be critical to the performance of PSAs) to the peel force master curves as shown to follow the same superposition rules by authors such as Kaelble. That work led to publication that provided some satisfying results but leaves a key question open for future research regarding the critical condition for adhesive debonding in PSAs and how it might relate to a fundamental length scale in the adhesive.

Applying polymer science principles to practical adhesive design problems

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.