| Pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) are adhesives that bond upon application of light pressure. With applications ranging from everyday home and office supplies to bioelectrodes and spaces shuttle parts, PSAs are among the fastest growing adhesive markets.;In this work, the above-mentioned three areas of PSA production were investigated for butyl acrylate/vinyl acetate emulsion-based polymers. The objectives were to investigate different variables affecting polymerization process, polymer and adhesive properties. The ultimate objective was to develop empirical models that will incorporate these variables to enable better prediction of the PSA properties. The knowledge gained during building of empirical models could later be used for development of mechanistic ones.;In this work a screening design was used first to manipulate eight different process variables in order to generate a wide range of inherent polymer properties and final PSA properties. The properties obtained ranged from good, to moderate and to less desirable. However, the major obstacle in this step was the presence of different modes of failure for the same type of adhesive tests. Under these conditions, modeling was not possible due to the lack of a uniform failure mode in all PSA tests. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).;Emulsion polymerization is increasingly used for the production of PSAs due to its higher environmental compliance as well as other advantages (e.g. lower energy consumption, lower capital costs…) compared to other technologies. However, there is a considerable lack of the integration of different areas of knowledge required for the production of PSAs using this technology. Process conditions (e.g. feed composition, temperature, solids content…) are only one area of interest. These conditions will result in inherent polymer properties (e.g. composition, molecular weight distribution, particle size distribution, gel content…), which govern final product properties (e.g. loop tack, peel and shear strength). Better understanding of each area separately (e.g. process parameters, inherent polymer properties, final product properties) and finally, their integration will lead to the improvement of existing and development of new emulsion-based products and processes. |
