ABSTRACTPoly(butyl acrylate‐vinyl acetate‐acrylic acid) based acrylic pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) were synthesized by solution polymerization for the fabrication of high performance pressure sensitive adhesive tapes. The synthesized PSAs have high shear strength and can be peeled off substrate without residues on the substrate at temperature up to 150°C. The PSAs synthesized in the present work are single‐component crosslinked and they can be used directly once synthesized, which is convenient for real applications compared to commercial multi‐component adhesives. The results demonstrated that the viscosity of the PSAs remained stable during prolonged storage. The effects of the preparation conditions such as initiator concentration, cross‐linker amount, organosiloxane monomer amount and tackifier resin on the polymer properties, such as glass transition temperature (Tg), molecular weight (Mw), surface energy and shear modulus, were studied, and the dependence of the adhesive properties on the polymer properties were also investigated. Crosslinking reactions showed a great improvement in the shear strength at high temperature. The addition of tackifier resin made peel strength increase compared to original PSAs because of the improvement of the adhesion strength. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40086.