Maleimide‐acrylate copolymers with pendent catechols: platform for probing adhesion

Abstract

Considerable work has gone into the development of synthetic systems that mimic biological approaches to provide adhesion in a wide range of environments. The catechol group is a workhorse functional group for this approach, capable of promoting adhesion through a number of transient interactions and oxidation states. We previously reported the development of a family of acrylate-maleimide-catechol (PAM) copolymers that varied the side chain to govern thermal properties and polarity. Here, we have used aluminium adherends to study the performance of the PAM series in an adhesive application, employing different deposition techniques to access 'true' and plasticized T g s for the material. The polarity and effective T g of the polymers had little correlation with the observed strength of adhesion, although some conclusions could be drawn about the series based on postmortem analysis and morphology characterization, where side chain assembly led to some periodic organization of the films. Adhesive strength to the adherends was sufficient to overcome the strength of the PAM, leading to a cohesive failure mode. Overall, the study revealed the importance of processing conditions and conditioning in the evaluation of novel polymer compositions.