Properties of pressure‐sensitive adhesive tapes with soft adhesives to human skin and their mechanism

Abstract

The use of soft adhesives in the manufacture of pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes has recently increased. The dermal peeling force of adhesive tapes with soft adhesives was studied. Four kinds of adhesive tapes with adhesives of different softness were made, by adding varying amounts of isopropyl myristate as a softener. The tapes were applied on the flexor side of the forearm of six healthy male volunteers. The dermal peeling force, the amount of stripped corneocytes, the level of pain when the tapes were removed and the degree of penetration of adhesives into the sulcus cutis (skin furrows) were evaluated at 1 and 24 h after application of the tapes. Furthermore, a skin model panel (a sulcus cutis and crista cutis model panel) and a crista cutis model panel were constructed from a general stainless-steel panel, and the peeling force of the tapes against the model panels was measured. As the softness of adhesives increased, the peeling force against a general stainless-steel panel with a flat surface decreased, although the peeling force against human skin did not significantly change. The amount of stripped corneocytes on the removed tapes and the level of pain when the tapes were removed decreased with the increase in softness of the adhesives. These results suggest that adhesive tapes with soft adhesives that contain isopropyl myristate as a softener are suitable for the skin. Furthermore, the degree of penetration of adhesive into the sulcus cutis increased as the softness of adhesives increased. Upon evaluation of the peeling force against the model panels, as the softness of adhesives increased, there was a slight decrease in the peeling force against the skin model panel, while there was a remarkable decrease in the peeling force against the crista cutis model panel. These results suggest that the lack of change in the dermal peeling force as the softness of adhesives increased was caused by penetration of soft adhesive into the sulcus cutis, and that the decrease in the amount of stripped corneocytes was caused by a decrease in the peeling force against the crista cutis, which consists of corneocytes mainly removed by the tapes.