Pressure-sensitive adhesive

Pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA, self-adhesive, self-stick adhesive) is a type of nonreactive adhesive which forms a bond when pressure is applied to bond the adhesive with a surface. No solvent, water, or heat is needed to activate the adhesive. It is used in pressure-sensitive tapes, labels, glue dots, stickers, sticky note pads, automobile trim, and a wide variety of other products.

As the name "pressure-sensitive" indicates, the degree of bond is influenced by the amount of pressure which is used to apply the adhesive to the surface.

Surface factors such as smoothness, surface energy, removal of contaminants, etc. are also important to proper bonding.

PSAs are usually designed to form a bond and hold properly at room temperatures. PSAs typically reduce or lose their tack at low temperatures and reduce their shear holding ability at high temperatures; special adhesives are made to function at high or low temperatures.

Adhesives may be broadly divided in two classes: structural and pressure-sensitive. To form a permanent bond, structural adhesives harden via processes such as evaporation of solvent (for example, white glue), reaction with UV radiation (as in dental adhesives), chemical reaction (such as two part epoxy), or cooling (as in hot melt). In contrast, pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) form a bond simply by the application of light pressure to marry the adhesive with the adherend.

Pressure-sensitive adhesives are designed with a balance between flow and resistance to flow. The bond forms because the adhesive is soft enough to flow, or wet, the adherend. The bond has strength because the adhesive is hard enough to resist flow when stress is applied to the bond. Once the adhesive and the adherend are in proximity, there are also molecular interactions such as van der Waals forces involved in the bond, which contribute significantly to the ultimate bond strength. PSAs exhibit viscoelastic (viscous and elastic) properties, both of which are used for proper bonding.

In contrast with structural adhesives, whose strength is evaluated as lap shear strength, pressure-sensitive adhesives are characterized by their shear and peel resistance as well as their initial tack. These properties are dependent, among other things, on the formulation, coating thickness, rub-down and temperature.

"Permanent" pressure-sensitive adhesives are initially pressure-sensitive and removable (for example to recover mislabeled goods) but after hours or days change their properties, by becoming less or not viscous, or by increasing the bond strength, so that the bond becomes permanent.^{[citation needed]}