Comparative study of novel polymer prototype for controlled thermally reworkable UV curable acrylic adhesives in absence and presence of reactive diluent

Abstract

An acrylic polypropylene oxide polymer was synthesized containing two sterically hindered urea linkages. The thermal decrosslinking behaviour of the resulting polymer matrix was studied with various basic and non-basic species. The study determined that the basic species facilitate the decrosslinking of the polymer matrix, whereas the non-basic species show no discernible decrosslinking behaviour. This study also determined that the decrosslinking behaviour of this polymer system could be controlled by the specific properties of the severing species. The work details that as the steric hindrance of the basic species increases, the decrosslinking temperature also increases. Finally, the decrosslinking properties of the polymer were studied in the presence of a reactive diluent to determine if the presence of species necessary for real adhesive formulations would impair the decrosslinking properties of the network. © 2003 IoM Communications Ltd.