Deriving Commercial Level Adhesive Performance from a Bio-Based Mussel Mimetic Polymer

Adhesives are critical for holding together the products that we use every day. Most industrial glues are petroleum-based. These materials are strong bonding but also permanent, leading to difficulties in separation, recycling, and reuse of the components. Petroleum-based materials only exist in finite quantities, and sustainable alternatives are needed for the future. Results presented here are part of our efforts to develop adhesives that are nontoxic, renewably sourced, and allow substrates to be disassembled for recycling. By systematically studying formulation parameters for a biobased, mussel mimetic polymer, we now have developed a material that is able to compete with commercial biobased and petroleum-based adhesives in terms of adhesive strengths on multiple substrates.