Pressure-sensitive adhesives from polyester pentablock copolymers

Journal article

Pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) are widely used materials in a number of applications, such as sticky notes and tapes, but for most commercial products they are derived from petrochemicals. Here, a series of pentablock polymers, with an ABABA structure featuring poly(cyclohexene oxide-alt-phthalic anhydride) ‘A’ blocks and poly(ε-decalactone) (PDL) ‘B’ blocks, are prepared as pressure-sensitive adhesives from bio-sourced monomers. The pentablock polymers are prepared by controlled polymerisation techniques, using a single catalyst, in a one-pot process. Polymer properties are tuned through varying the hard block (A) content between 16–39 wt%. Below 25 wt% hard block, the pentablock polymers show low-tack adhesive performance (0.2–0.6 N cm−1) and are removed by adhesive failure. Their adhesive performance compares favourably to low-tack commercial adhesives.

Authors: Gao, C; Poon, KC; Williams, CK

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Journal: Polymer Chemistry
• Publication date: 2025-12-04
• Acceptance date: 2025-11-21
• DOI: 10.1039/d5py01006c
• EISSN: 1759-9962
• ISSN: 1759-9954
• Language: English