On-demand easy peeling of acrylic adhesives containing ionic liquids through a microwave irradiation stimulus

Abstract

We prepared microwave-responsive “on-demand-peeling” adhesives simply by mixing second-generation acrylic adhesives with ionic liquids. A rapid response (<30 s for adhesive failure) to microwave irradiation was achieved using a microwave oven. This “on-demand-peeling” was attributed to local heating of the ionic liquid in the adhesive by microwave irradiation. In addition, the adhesive strength was not influenced by the ionic liquid additives without microwave irradiation. We revealed that the local heating and the plasticizing effect of the ionic liquid were the cause of the “on-demand-peeling”. Our preparation method for these microwave-responsive adhesives is simple, conventional, and attractive for the fundamental and industrial fields. We prepared microwave-responsive adhesives from second-generation acrylic adhesives and ionic liquids, and performed microwave-responsive “on-demand-peeling”. The response depended on the types and quantity of the ionic liquids. While the adhesive strength were maintained irrespective of the contents of ionic liquid in the adhesives, with/without microwave irradiation. The peeling of the adhesives was observed in less than 30 s after microwave irradiation. In this study, we proposed simple, conventional, and attractive preparation of microwave-responsive adhesives by adding ionic liquids.