Congratulations to Brylee Tiu, Peyman Delparastan, and Max Ney for publication of their article in Angewandte Chemie! The manuscript has also been labeled as a Very Important Paper (VIP) based on the evaluation of referees–only a small number of accepted manuscripts receive such a positive evaluation!
The presence of the catehcolic amino acid Dopa in the adhesive proteins of marine mussels has long inspired researchers to develop catechol-containing synthetic polymers. Recent findings have suggested that close association of Dopa with cationic amino acids such as lysine can lead to significant improvements in adhesion through synergistic effects between catechols and amines.
Inspired by these recent findings, in this work we report design and synthesis of a new generation of amino- catechol pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) by copolymerization of traditional PSA monomers with lysine- and aromatic-rich monomers. We report the most advanced catecholamine monomer design to date, in which the amine and catechol functional groups optimally arranged so as to enhance force transmission from the substrate to the adhesive. We subjected our polymers to the most comprehensive dry/wet adhesion characterization to date, including AFM-assisted molecular and microscopic force spectroscopy as well as standard macroscopic static shear and peel adhesion tests. The rational approach to polymer design combined with multi-scale adhesion characterizations allowed us to decouple the interfacial adhesive and intermolecular cohesive contributions and investigate the effects of molecular architecture and aromatic structure on the overall performance.
Check out this work in Angewandte Chemie:
Cooperativity of Catechols and Amines in High Performance Dry/Wet Adhesives
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Accepted Author Manuscript. doi:10.1002/anie.202005946
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/anie.202005946
