Performance of Pressure Sensitive Adhesives on Soft and Slippery Materials

压敏胶是一种材料，在施加了轻微的外部压力后，它会粘合到基材上。它们在日常生活中广泛用于粘合干燥和坚硬的表面。这些材料尚未扩展到从医疗保健到建筑等表面柔软、潮湿和光滑的其他重要应用领域，如皮肤、组织或伤口。这些材料通常很软，在压力下会变形。这些软材料的机械性能，而不仅仅是它们的表面，会影响到附着在该表面的能力。这项研究将确定基材的性能与粘合剂的性能和失效之间的基本关系。更好地了解软表面和湿表面胶粘剂的性能和失效机理可能会对健康或柔性可穿戴电子产品等各种行业产生重要影响，在这些行业，新的创新胶粘剂可能会打开新的技术应用。这项工作还将使高中生和本科生深入接触研究和材料。压敏胶粘剂的粘弹性性质使理解它们的机械响应具有挑战性，特别是在大应变的限制下。该项目旨在通过测试两个科学假设，为压敏胶粘剂在柔顺和潮湿表面上的性能提供所需的知识。首先，增加基材柔度将增加裂纹尖端的耗散区的大小，并影响胶粘剂的性能和失效模式。其次，对于湿表面的粘附性，表面能比整体耗散的重要性应该增加。为了验证这些假设，我们将从根本上更好地了解分层体系中胶粘剂内部的应力集中以及它们在水中暴露时表面能量的变化。本研究的系统实验方法分为三个目的。(1)开发一套先进的工具包，以研究压敏胶在软、湿和光滑表面上的性能；(2)了解压敏胶在软和湿表面上的剥离粘附性；以及(3)表征软和湿基材上的粘性。外展和教育部分包括与当地高中的伙伴关系，让学生参与研究体验，重点是代表性不足的学生。

Pressure sensitive adhesives are a class of materials that bind to a substrate after a light external pressure has been applied. They are used extensively in daily life for adhesion to dry and rigid surfaces. These materials have not been extended to other important application areas ranging from healthcare to construction where the surfaces are soft, wet, and slippery, such as skin, tissue, or wounds. These materials are often soft and can deform under pressure. The mechanical properties of these soft materials, not just their surface, can affect the ability to adhere to that surface. This research will determine the fundamental relationships between the properties of a substrate and the performance and failure of adhesives. A better understanding of performance and failure mechanisms for adhesives on soft and wet surfaces could have important impact in industries as diverse as health or flexible wearable electronics where new innovative adhesives could open new technological applications. This work will also engage high school and undergraduates in an intensive exposure to research and materials.The viscoelastic nature of pressure sensitive adhesives makes understanding their mechanical response challenging, especially in the limit of large strains. The project aims to provide the needed knowledge for the performance of pressure sensitive adhesives on compliant and wet surfaces by testing two scientific hypotheses. First, increasing the substrate compliance should increase the size of the dissipation zone at a crack tip, and affect the performance & mode of failure of adhesives. Second, the importance of surface energy over bulk dissipation should increase for adhesion on wet surfaces. To test these hypothesis a better fundamental understanding of stress concentration within an adhesive in stratified systems as well as of the change in their surface energy upon exposure to water will be acquired. This research systematic experimental approach is divided into three aims. (1) Develop an advanced toolkit to study the performance of pressure sensitive adhesives on soft, wet, and slippery surfaces, (2) Understand peeling adhesion of pressure sensitive adhesives from soft and wet surfaces, and (3) Characterize tack on soft and wet substrates. The outreach and educational components include a partnership with local high schools to engage students in the research experience with a focus on underrepresented students.