The Open Materials Science Journal

2013, 7 : 23-28
Published online 2013 October 18. DOI: 10.2174/1874088X01307010023
Publisher ID: TOMSJ-7-23

Mechanics of Soft PSAs (Pressure Sensitive Adhesives)

Giuseppe Lamanna and Alessandro Basile
Department of Industrial and Information Engineering, Second University of Naples, Italy.

ABSTRACT

The adhesive performances of a PSA (Pressure Sensitive Adhesive) are attributed to their viscoelastic properties. In this paper we analyze the viscoelastic behavior of different PSAs having substantially similar adhesive performance. Linear and non linear analyses were performed using small amplitude oscillatory shear tests and tensile stress-strain tests, respectively. It is shown that linear viscoelastic tests are useful to qualitatively characterize the adhesive performances. However, deeper knowledge can be achieved by non linear viscoelastic tests. The true stress - true strain curves are modeled by using a theory accounting for the interpenetration of micro-network and the linear polymer. It is shown that the same substantial in-service properties can be achieved with adhesives showing different fingerprints in terms of viscoelastic spectra.

Keywords:

Pressure sensitive adhesives, tack, shear resistance.