A reactive acrylic adhesive for bonding polyolefins

An acrylic adhesive was developed for forming strong, water resistant structural joints with polyolefins. This two-component, lightly crosslinked, methyl methacrylate (MMA) based adhesive consisted of an anaerobic curing system in one part with a copper (II) salt catalyst in the other. Bonds formed with low density polyethylene (LDPE) resulted in substrate failure upon block shear testing throughout the open time of the adhesive (45 min). The interdiffusion of the monomers into the substrates, and their subsequent polymerization was followed using several infrared spectroscopy (IR) techniques. The interphase of mixed LDPE and adhesive was determined to be as thick as 1.7 mm using IR microscopy. It was concluded that the strong adhesion in the aforementioned joints was the result of the interpenetration of the adhesive into the substrates.