Sustainable polycarbonate adhesives for dry and aqueous conditions with thermoresponsive properties

Anjeza Beharaj,William A Blessing,Ethan Z Mccaslin,Mark W Grinstaff

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-13449-y

Anjeza Beharaj, William A Blessing + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13449-y

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Journal: Nature Communications	Publication Date: Dec 1, 2019
Citations: 62	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Boston University

Abstract

Pressure sensitive adhesives are ubiquitous in commodity products such as tapes, bandages, labels, packaging, and insulation. With single use plastics comprising almost half of yearly plastic production, it is essential that the design, synthesis, and decomposition products of future materials, including polymer adhesives, are within the context of a healthy ecosystem along with comparable or superior performance to conventional materials. Here we show a series of sustainable polymeric adhesives, with an eco-design, that perform in both dry and wet environments. The terpolymerization of propylene oxide, glycidyl butyrate, and CO2, catalyzed by a cobalt salen complex bearing a quaternary ammonium salt, yields the poly(propylene-co-glycidyl butyrate carbonate)s (PPGBC)s. This polymeric adhesive system, composed of environmentally benign building blocks, implements carbon dioxide sequestration techniques, poses minimal environmental hazards, exhibits varied peel strengths from scotch tape to hot-melt wood-glue, and adheres to metal, glass, wood, and Teflon® surfaces.

Highlights

Pressure sensitive adhesives are ubiquitous in commodity products such as tapes, bandages, labels, packaging, and insulation
We utilize a synthetic pathway pioneered by Inoue et al.[34] and brought to realization by Coates[35] and Darensbourg[36], and a catalyst ligand framework optimized by Lu et al.[37,38], in which carbon dioxide and an oxiranyl monomer[39,40,41,42] are activated and linked together to afford a degradable polycarbonate
In order to mimic the pendant functionality of current commercial adhesives (Fig. 1a), we synthesized poly(propylene-co-glycidyl butyrate carbonate) (PPGBC) via the terpolymerization of glycidyl butyrate (GB), propylene oxide (PO), and 2.7 MPa of CO2 catalyzed by a salen cobalt complex (2000:1 catalyst loading) at 40 °C (Fig. 1b, c, and Supplementary Methods)

Summary

Introduction

Pressure sensitive adhesives are ubiquitous in commodity products such as tapes, bandages, labels, packaging, and insulation. These adhesives exhibit polymer compositional dependences on peel and tack strength, bind to metal, glass, wood, and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), as well as exhibit reversible on-demand adhesion through a temperature trigger in both dry and wet environments.

Results

Conclusion