Functional Adhesives: from Medical to Eco-friendly Adhesives

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Adhesive is any substance that is capable of holding two separate materials together in a functional manner by surface attachment. Since its early discovery by the Egyptians (3300 year ago), intensive research efforts have been made with the purpose of obtaining high performance or biocompatible adhesives. Natural materials such as tree pitches and beeswax were replaced by synthetic polymers that had a high degree of structural strength and resistance to severe environmental conditions; nowadays, the focus is being mostly on eco-friendly adhesives. Here, different types of adhesive are introduced from biomimetic adhesives for medical applications to ecofriendly adhesives. Depending on the types of adherend and the required mechanical behavior of the bonded structure, adhesive materials will be determined. The protein-based tissue adhesive derived from marine mussel is suitable for bonding wet tissues under highly dynamic environments of the human body because of its biocompatibility and water-immiscible property. On the other hand, pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) film made of polyolefins with very low water permeability can be a good candidate for a sealing material protecting OLED from humidity. Lastly, a fully bio-derived adhesive is a greener alternative to the intensively used synthetic polymer-based adhesives which have concerning environmental issues related to the growing use of petroleum-based materials.