Investigation of new hot melt adhesives with plasticisers based on renewable resources : Investigating the use of sustainable plasticisers in hot melt adhesives

Sammanfattning: Hot melt adhesives (HMA) are a class of adhesives that, unlike solvent-or waterborne counterparts, do not contain organic solvents or other carriers, and are produced and subsequently applied in a molten state. The main components of HMA are polymers, tackifying resins, and a plasticiser. HMA offer a more environmentally friendly option of adhesive materials.  This study was undertaken to investigate the performance of plasticisers based on renewable resources in HMA. Historically, mineral oil-based plasticisers have been used with great success in HMA formulations, offering a performance benchmark. This work selected suitable alternatives from renewable resources, ranging from fully renewable to fully conventional compositions. During the production stage, the compatibility of such plasticisers with the rest of the HMA formulation was studied while rheological methods were used to investigate the impact of different plasticisers on the properties of the final HMA. Adhesive properties were also assessed by loop tack and peel tests on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and stainless steel (SS) substrates.   It was shown that some of the studied materials from renewable resources could offer a suitable component in the design of a biobased plasticiser, whose performance matched conventional plasticisers, while the ratio of the biobased fraction was up to 70 % and possibly even higher. The findings of this work show the potential of biobased alternatives in making HMA with a higher degree of sustainability.