This book addresses both the fundamental and applied aspects of adhesion, with an emphasis on recent developments in the field. It discusses adhesion in biology, the chemistry of adhesive formulation, surface chemistry and the pretreatment of adherends, mechanics, non-destructive testing, the durability of adhesive joints, advanced technical applications, and more. There is also coverage of the role of chemical bonds in adhesion, new resins and nanocomposites for adhesives, and the effects of macromolecular architecture on the properties of hot melt and pressure-sensitive adhesives.

From the Preface: “...[A]dhesion forces have been subject to intense research for many decades now. Nevertheless, we are still far from understanding them in such detail that we could transfer our knowledge straight to the sector of engineering and application. This current state has to do with the discovery that the action of fundamental adhesion forces is not restricted to the interface. They not only fix some layer of adhesive molecules on the surface of the adherend but they can exert strong influence on the formation of chemical and morphological structure as well as on molecular mobility in the adjacent region of the adhesive during solidification. Hence an interphase is formed. These interphases depend on the combination of adhesive and adherend surface and on the process of contact formation as well...”

Target Audience: Chemists, physicists, biologists, engineers, and upper-level students interested in adhesion theory and practical applications.

Table of Contents:

The Interfacial Chemistry of Adhesion: Novel Routes to the Holy Grail?

Modeling Fundamental Aspects of the Surface Chemistry of Oxides and Their Interactions with Coupling Agents

Adhesion at the Nanoscale: An Approach by AFM

Organization of PCL-b-PMMA Diblock Thin Films: Relationship to the Adsorption Substrate Chemistry

Adhesion and Friction Properties of Elastomers at Macroscopic and Nanoscopic Scales

Chemical Structure Formation and Morphology in Ultrathin Polyurethane Films on Metals

Properties of the Interphase Epoxy—Amine/Metal: Influences from the Nature of the Amine and the Metal

Mapping Epoxy Interphases

Mechanical Interphases in Epoxies as Seen by Nondestructive High-Performance Brillouin Microscopy

Structure Formation in Barnacle Adhesive

Adhesion Molecule-Modified Cardiovascular Prostheses: Characterization of Cellular Adhesion in a Cell Culture Model and by Cellular Force Spectroscopy

Surface Engineering by Coating of Hydrophilic Layers: Bioadhesion and Biocontamination

New Resins and Nanosystems for High-Performance Adhesives

Influence of Proton Donors on the Cationic Polymerization of Epoxides

Novel Adhesion Promoters Based on Hyperbranched Polymers

Rheology of Hot-Melt PSAs: Influence of Polymer Structure

Preparation and Characterization of UV-Crosslinkable Pressure-Sensitive Adhesives

Contribution of Chemical Interactions to the Adhesion Between Evaporated Metals and Functional Groups of Different Types at Polymer Surfaces

Alkene Pulsed Plasma Functionalized Surfaces: An Interfacial Diels-Alder Reaction Study

Laser Surface Treatment of Composite Materials to Enhance Adhesion Properties

Effects of the Interphase on the Mechanical Behavior of Thin Film Adhesives - a Modeling Approach

Effect of the Diblock Content on the Adhesive and Deformation Properties of PSAs Based on Styrenic Block Copolymers

Contact Mechanics and Interfacial Fatigue Studies Between Thin Semicrystalline and Glassy Polymer Films

Local and Global Aspects of Adhesion Phenomena in Soft Polymers

Calibration and Evaluation of Nonlinear Ultrasonic Transmission Measurements of Thin-Bonded Interfaces

Debonding of Pressure-Sensitive Adhesives: A Combined Tack and Ultra-Small Angle X-Ray Scattering Study

Nondestructive Testing of Adhesive Curing in Glass—Metal Compounds by Unilateral NMR

Chemical Processes During Aging in Ultra-thin Epoxy Films on Metals

Depth-Resolved Analysis of the Aging Behavior of Epoxy Thin Films by Positron Spectroscopy

Epoxies on Stainless Steel — Curing and Aging

Scanning Kelvin Probe Studies of Ion Transport and De-Adhesion Processes at Polymer/Metal Interfaces

Advanced Mass Transport Applications with Elastic Bonding of Sandwich Components

Adhesive Joints for Modular Components in Railway Applications

Behavior of Dismantlable Adhesives Including Thermally Expansive Microcapsules

Index