Carpet backing adhesive and its use in recycling carpet

Abstract

An adhesive useful in making recyclable carpet is prepared from a copolymer dispersion and a filler. The copolymer dispersion is prepared in an emulsion polymerization of a mixture of monomers comprising styrene, butadiene, an alkylacrylic acid monomer, in which the alkyl radical of the alkylacrylic acid monomer is a C1 to C6 branched or unbranched hydrocarbyl radical, and a combination of a second ethylenically unsaturated monocarboxylic acid with an ethylenically unsaturated dicarboxylic acid, in which the alkylacrylic acid monomer is present in a quantity predominating the combination of the second ethylenically unsaturated monocarboxylic acid with the ethylenically unsaturated dicarboxylic acid. The adhesive can be completely removed from the face fibers by applied shear in the presence of aqueous alkaline solution. Recyclable carpets made with the adhesive exhibit high delamination strength, both when wet and when dry.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.