We recently reported synthesis and characterization of mussel-inspired pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) where we observed stark increases in shear and peel adhesion for the catecholic adhesives over PSAs with noncatecholic motifs. The enhanced wet shear holding power of the catecholic PSA was illustrated by preparing a prototype sticky note and assessing its underwater performance as compared to Post-it® Extreme note, a product marketed as water-resistant and engineered for tough conditions. Under fully submerged conditions, our catechol PSA outperformed a commercial sticky note.
Check out our recent publication to learn more about the mussel-inspired PSAs!
Enhanced Adhesion and Cohesion of Bioinspired Dry/Wet Pressure Sensitive Adhesives
ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2019, 11, 31, 28296-28306
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.9b08429
The video shows an experiment in which sticky notes and stainless steel plates were submerged in water and brought into contact. Upon loading the Post-it® Extreme note system under shear by a 500 g weight the adhesive bond instantly failed, whereas a sticky note prepared with catecholic PSA was able to support the 500 g weight for a prolonged time.