Water-inactivatable pressure sensitive adhesive
AssigneeAdhesives Research, Inc.
InventorsDonald J. Therriault, Michael J. Zajaczkowski
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Abstract
A novel polymeric pressure-sensitive adhesive formulation is provided comprised of a balanced hydrophilic/hydrophobic base polymer compounded with at least one water-soluble tackifying component. Upon contact of the pressure-sensitive adhesive with excess amounts of water, the water-soluble tackifying component is caused to separate from the base polymer, thus decreasing the ability of the base polymer to function as a pressure-sensitive adhesive. The adhesive may subsequently be easily removed from any substrate to which it has been applied.
Claims26
A water-inactivatable pressure sensitive adhesive comprised of a hydrophilic/hydrophobic base polymer component in admixture with a water-soluble tackifying agent for said base polymer, said base polymer component comprising a phase separated graft copolymer composition comprised of copolymerized monomers A and B to form a backbone polymer having a polymeric moiety grafted thereto, wherein monomer A is a monomeric acrylic or methacrylic acid ester of a non-tertiary alcohol having from 1 to 14 carbon atoms, with the average number of carbon atoms being in the range of about 4 to 12, and monomer B is a polar monomer which is copolymerizable with monomer A, wherein said graft polymeric moiety is present in an amount of from about 1.5 to 2.5 graft polymeric moieties per polymer backbone chain on average, and wherein said water-soluble tackifying agent and said base polymer components are present in a weight ratio of from about 0.05:1 to about 1.5:1, respectively.
In combination, (1) a water-inactivatable pressure sensitive adhesive comprised of a hydrophilic/hydrophobic base polymer component in admixture with a water-soluble tackifying agent for said base polymer, said base polymer component comprising a phase separated graft copolymer composition comprised of copolymerized monomers A and B to form a backbone polymer having a polymeric moiety grafted thereto, wherein monomer A is a monomeric acrylic or methacrylic acid ester of a non-tertiary alcohol having from 1 to 14 carbon atoms, with the average number of carbon atoms being in the range of about 4 to 12, and monomer B is a polar monomer which is copolymerizable with monomer A, wherein said graft polymeric moiety is present in an amount of from about 1.5 to 2.5 graft polymeric moieties per polymer backbone chain on average, and wherein said water-soluble tackifying agent and said base polymer component are present in a weight ratio of from 0.05:1 to about 1.5:1, respectively, and (2) a water-absorbing backing support material to which said adhesive is applied.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.