Nanostructured, heat-deactivable and tunable pressure sensitive adhesives from mixtures of vitrimer latexes. – VITRIPSA

The VITRIPSA project aims at synthesizing a new generation of water-based pressure sensitive adhesives (PSA) based on vitrimers, with unprecedented control over the structuration and viscoelastic properties that will yield high-performance adhesives and bring additional understanding in the previous mesoscopic description of nanostructured adhesives. We are also interested in a new paradigm in which dynamic covalent bonds not only act as dynamic cross-links constitutive of structural adhesives, but also as handles to promote dramatic time-dependent changes of structuration and viscoelastic behaviour. We anticipate that extensive interdiffusion between nanostructured vitrimer networks enabled by bond exchanges at high temperatures will lead to phase randomization and to irreversible changes in the viscoelastic properties. In this manner, we seek to demonstrate permanent heat-deactivation of the adhesion, with important applications for sustainable development of bonded products.