The University of Massachusetts Amherst

Pressure Sensitive Adhesives

LEAD INVENTORS:
Shelly Peyton, Ph.D., John Klier, Ph.D.
TECHNOLOGY DESCRIPTION
Pressure sensitive adhesives bond two materials when physical pressure is applied to marry the adhesive with the adherent. They are widely applied in self-adhesive tapes, labels and marking films, medical plasters and pads, dermal pharmaceutical dosage forms, medical drapes and biomedical electrodes. Curing current adhesives often involves UV irradiation or heat, capital and energy intensive steps which may produce to toxic byproducts.

 

The invention concerns novel compositions and crosslinking strategies that greatly simplify fabrication of pressure sensitive adhesives.  A soluble and flowable polymer containing latent crosslinking sites is applied to a substrate as a low-viscosity solution or melt.  After application, spontaneous crosslinking occurs at ambient conditions, eliminating the need for post-crosslinking equipment, capital and expense. It also eliminates formation of undesired or toxic residues; allows the formation of crosslinked adhesive layers on temperature-sensitive substrates; enables the use of opaque crosslinkable adhesive formulations; and facilitates the incorporation of adhesives into porous or complex substrates. These strategies may be generalized to broader classes of solvent borne and hot melt pressure adhesives.

 

 
ADVANTAGES

•       Eliminates need for expensive crosslinking equipment

•       Enables crosslinking at ambient conditions

•       Eliminates toxic byproducts

•       Broadens range of substrates (e.g. porous, temperature sensitive)

   

 

 

 
PRODUCT OPPORTUNITY
•       Novel crosslinking strategies to simplify fabrication of pressure sensitive adhesives

 

 

ABOUT THE INVENTORS
Dr. Shelly Peyton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UMass Amherst. The Peyton group studies how cells process information from their chemical and physical tissue environment.

Dr. John Klier is Professor and Department Head of Chemical Engineering at UMass Amherst. Prior to this role, Dr. Klier served as the global research and development director for the Performance Materials and Chemicals Segment at The Dow Chemical Co.

 

AVAILABILITY:
Available for Licensing and/or Sponsored Research
DOCKET:
UMA 17-030
PATENT STATUS:
Patent Pending
Contact:
Burnley Jaklevic
Director
University of Massachusetts
413-577-0651
bjaklevic@research.umass.edu
Inventor(s):
Shelly Peyton
John Klier
Yen Tran
Todd Emrick
Keywords: