Adhesive | Definition, Types, Uses, Materials, & Facts (2024)

adhesive, any substance that is capable of holding materials together in a functional manner by surface attachment that resists separation. “Adhesive” as a general term includes cement, mucilage, glue, and paste—terms that are often used interchangeably for any organic material that forms an adhesive bond. Inorganic substances such as portland cement also can be considered adhesives, in the sense that they hold objects such as bricks and beams together through surface attachment, but this article is limited to a discussion of organic adhesives, both natural and synthetic.

Natural adhesives have been known since antiquity. Egyptian carvings dating back 3,300 years depict the gluing of a thin piece of veneer to what appears to be a plank of sycamore. Papyrus, an early nonwoven fabric, contained fibres of reedlike plants bonded together with flour paste. Bitumen, tree pitches, and beeswax were used as sealants (protective coatings) and adhesives in ancient and medieval times. The gold leaf of illuminated manuscripts was bonded to paper by egg white, and wooden objects were bonded with glues from fish, horn, and cheese. The technology of animal and fish glues advanced during the 18th century, and in the 19th century rubber- and nitrocellulose-based cements were introduced. Decisive advances in adhesives technology, however, awaited the 20th century, during which time natural adhesives were improved and many synthetics came out of the laboratory to replace natural adhesives in the marketplace. The rapid growth of the aircraft and aerospace industries during the second half of the 20th century had a profound impact on adhesives technology. The demand for adhesives that had a high degree of structural strength and were resistant to both fatigue and severe environmental conditions led to the development of high-performance materials, which eventually found their way into many industrial and domestic applications.

This article begins with a brief explanation of the principles of adhesion and then proceeds to a review of the major classes of natural and synthetic adhesives.

Adhesion

In the performance of adhesive joints, the physical and chemical properties of the adhesive are the most important factors. Also important in determining whether the adhesive joint will perform adequately are the types of adherend (that is, the components being joined—e.g., metal alloy, plastic, composite material) and the nature of the surface pretreatment or primer. These three factors—adhesive, adherend, and surface—have an impact on the service life of the bonded structure. The mechanical behaviour of the bonded structure in turn is influenced by the details of the joint design and by the way in which the applied loads are transferred from one adherend to the other.

Implicit in the formation of an acceptable adhesive bond is the ability of the adhesive to wet and spread on the adherends being joined. Attainment of such interfacial molecular contact is a necessary first step in the formation of strong and stable adhesive joints. Once wetting is achieved, intrinsic adhesive forces are generated across the interface through a number of mechanisms. The precise nature of these mechanisms have been the object of physical and chemical study since at least the 1960s, with the result that a number of theories of adhesion exist. The main mechanism of adhesion is explained by the adsorption theory, which states that substances stick primarily because of intimate intermolecular contact. In adhesive joints this contact is attained by intermolecular or valence forces exerted by molecules in the surface layers of the adhesive and adherend.

In addition to adsorption, four other mechanisms of adhesion have been proposed. The first, mechanical interlocking, occurs when adhesive flows into pores in the adherend surface or around projections on the surface. The second, interdiffusion, results when liquid adhesive dissolves and diffuses into adherend materials. In the third mechanism, adsorption and surface reaction, bonding occurs when adhesive molecules adsorb onto a solid surface and chemically react with it. Because of the chemical reaction, this process differs in some degree from simple adsorption, described above, although some researchers consider chemical reaction to be part of a total adsorption process and not a separate adhesion mechanism. Finally, the electronic, or electrostatic, attraction theory suggests that electrostatic forces develop at an interface between materials with differing electronic band structures. In general, more than one of these mechanisms play a role in achieving the desired level of adhesion for various types of adhesive and adherend.

In the formation of an adhesive bond, a transitional zone arises in the interface between adherend and adhesive. In this zone, called the interphase, the chemical and physical properties of the adhesive may be considerably different from those in the noncontact portions. It is generally believed that the interphase composition controls the durability and strength of an adhesive joint and is primarily responsible for the transference of stress from one adherend to another. The interphase region is frequently the site of environmental attack, leading to joint failure.

The strength of adhesive bonds is usually determined by destructive tests, which measure the stresses set up at the point or line of fracture of the test piece. Various test methods are employed, including peel, tensile lap shear, cleavage, and fatigue tests. These tests are carried out over a wide range of temperatures and under various environmental conditions. An alternate method of characterizing an adhesive joint is by determining the energy expended in cleaving apart a unit area of the interphase. The conclusions derived from such energy calculations are, in principle, completely equivalent to those derived from stress analysis.

Adhesive materials

Virtually all synthetic adhesives and certain natural adhesives are composed of polymers, which are giant molecules, or macromolecules, formed by the linking of thousands of simpler molecules known as monomers. The formation of the polymer (a chemical reaction known as polymerization) can occur during a “cure” step, in which polymerization takes place simultaneously with adhesive-bond formation (as is the case with epoxy resins and cyanoacrylates), or the polymer may be formed before the material is applied as an adhesive, as with thermoplastic elastomers such as styrene-isoprene-styrene block copolymers. Polymers impart strength, flexibility, and the ability to spread and interact on an adherend surface—properties that are required for the formation of acceptable adhesion levels.