Superglues with high adhesion strength and easy detachment ability

• Main Author: Mohammad Fadhli Rohani
• Other Authors: K Jimmy Hsia
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2022
• Subjects: Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159186
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Adhesives are popularly used to permanently join two or more objects or surfaces together. From households to the industrial sector, adhesives are widely used daily. Yet, there are still common issues in the usage of adhesives. The adhesives used in this current era are mostly non-reusable and leave residues as it is being removed. There are many bio-inspired superglues made of polydimethylsiloxane, carbon nanotubes, polyimide hairs and polyvinylsiloxane. They have shown strong adhesion on the adherend. However, most designs have reduced adhesion strength as the roughness of surfaces increases. Hence, we designed a fibrillar adhesive system using shape memory polymer (SMP) to address these challenges. The soft nature of the SMP in the rubbery state allows the adhesive to conform and adhere to commonly-encountered rough surfaces. This would improve adhesion strength of the SMP. After removal of the stimulus, the deformation and conformal contact is fixed, which can ensure a strong adhesion even on a rough surface. Upon re-stimulation, the shape memory property of the SMP allows gentle releasing from the surface. This reusable superglue design provides a versatile solution to be utilised in various applications. The superior adhesion capabilities were demonstrated by the testing of adhesion strength on various rough glass adherends. There was an increase of 15% in adhesion force as the value of surface roughness increases from RMS = 0.0028 μm to 3.646 μm. The adhesion strength is also very small (<33.4 kPa) as we remove it in the rubbery state. Thus, leaving no residues on the adherend. The demonstrations utilizing the SMP fibrillar adhesive in adhesive hook to hold different every-day objects with mass up to 60 kg further validated the feasibility. We anticipate that the usage of SMP as adhesives will significantly impact the study of adhesives. This SMP adhesive could be the replacement of other adhesives used in the world today.