Additives for caustic removal of adhesive from substrates, hot melt adhesives comprising such additives, and methods for recycling laminates bonded by such adhesives

Abstract

An additive composition for facilitating delamination of hot melt adhesives from substrates comprises a polymer having the structure (I): (I) wherein: m is from about 35 to about 1,200; n is the number of moles of maleic anhydride in a reactant used to form the polymer and is from about 2 to about 1200; 1 is from about 1 to about 780; n−1 is from about 1 to about 420; y is from 0 to about 45; z is from 0 to about 33, provided that y or z is at least about 5; and the ratio of l:n is at most 0.65:1. The additive composition may further comprise an auxiliary agent, such as a fatty acid. A hot melt adhesive composition comprises th additive, a base polymer and optionally a tackifier and a plasticizer. Methods for recycling substrates comprise delaminating the adhesive from the substrates using a caustic wash.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.