Made of non-toxic and environmentally friendly biomimetic adhesive

Science and Technology Daily News (Reporter Zhang Jiaxin) If there were no adhesives, most of modern human civilization, including mobile phones, cars, furniture, walls, and packages delivered to doorsteps, would fall apart. However, the problem with these adhesives is that they are not sustainable

Science and Technology Daily News (Reporter Zhang Jiaxin) If there were no adhesives, most of modern human civilization, including mobile phones, cars, furniture, walls, and packages delivered to doorsteps, would fall apart. However, the problem with these adhesives is that they are not sustainable. A team of chemists from Purdue University in the United States hopes to change this with a completely sustainable new adhesive system. Inspired by shellfish, they developed a new type of glue that is stronger and more sustainable. The research results were published in the journal Nature on September 13th.

Jonathan Wilk, a professor of chemistry at the School of Science and Materials Engineering at Purdue University, stated that current adhesives cause various environmental problems, with almost all adhesives based on petroleum and unable to degrade and recycle. The volatile petroleum chemicals in these adhesives may be toxic, such as building material plywood, which is formed by bonding wood chips and formaldehyde based adhesives together. The release of formaldehyde from new houses can expose residents to this carcinogen. In addition, discarded adhesive products can exist for centuries and also produce microplastics, polluting the ocean.

Wilk's laboratory analyzed marine animals such as mussels and oysters, and after conducting experiments on a range of different biological sources and sustainable ingredients, the research team determined to use epoxy soybean oil as the main ingredient. They added it to malic acid and then added tannic acid. Together, these three components create a substance similar to mussels attaching themselves to rocks, forming a cheap, effective, scalable, practical, and completely sustainable adhesive.

All components in the new adhesive are based on biology, with good safety and easy manufacturing, basically requiring only mixing and heating of these components. Other bio based compounds can also be used together with epoxidized soybean oil to produce a series of new sustainable adhesives.

To test the performance of this adhesive, researchers bonded wood, plastic, or metal together and used an instrument to break the bond to measure the adhesion force. In most cases, new adhesives perform well, sometimes even surpassing toxic adhesives such as strong adhesives.

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