Toughening polymer adhesives using nanosized elastomeric particles

Toughening Epoxy Adhesives to Meet Today’s Challenges

There are many advantages that polymeric adhesives can offer compared to the more traditional methods of joining such as bolting, brazing, welding, mechanical fasteners, etc. and epoxy adhesives represent the most common type of structural adhesive. When polymerised, epoxy adhesives are amorphous and highly-crosslinked materials and this microstructure results in many useful properties for stru...

Toughening and asymmetry in peeling of heterogeneous adhesives.

The effective adhesive properties of heterogeneous thin films are characterized through a combined experimental and theoretical investigation. By bridging scales, we show how variations of elastic or adhesive properties at the microscale can significantly affect the effective peeling behavior of the adhesive at the macroscale. Our study reveals three elementary mechanisms in heterogeneous syste...

Gecko-InspIred polymer AdhesIves

The discovery of the gecko’s remarkable foot adhesion has provided a riddle for engineers and scientists to solve: how can an adhesive surface be selectively sticky, directional, remain clean, and work on almost any material? Gecko feet stick to almost anything, in almost any condition (including underwater and in space), but do not stick unintentionally, do not stick to dirt, and enable the ge...

Microfluidic Synthesis of Designed Colloidal Particles Using Structured Elastomeric Membranes

We report a method for synthesizing various shaped colloidal microparticles using microfluidic devices with structured elastomeric membranes. These elastomeric membranes incorporated between two-layered channels have negative relief structures, and pneumatically actuated membrane leads to confinement of fluid inside structures. Using this microfluidic system, we demonstrate synthesis of various...

Polymer Science Coatings and Adhesives