Design of Reversible Adhesives by Using a Triple Function of Ionic Liquids

Reversible adhesives are crucial for a circular economy of composites as they play a key role for rework, repair, and recycling of adhesively bonded components. Herein, electrically debondable adhesives are prepared by introducing ionic liquids in dynamic thiol–epoxy networks. The function of the ionic liquid in the networks is threefold as it accelerates the curing reaction between thiol and epoxy monomers, facilitates electrical debonding, and catalyzes thermoactivated transesterification reactions, required for rebonding at elevated temperature. A library of 1,3-dibutylimidazolium-based ionic liquids with varying anions is synthetized and it is found that 1,3-dibutyl-1H-imidazol-3-ium dicyanamide (DiButIm─N(CN)₂) is superior in accelerating bond-exchange reactions between hydroxy and ester moieties at elevated temperature. Thus, a thiol–epoxy resin containing 20 wt% of DiButIm─N(CN)₂ is used to impregnate glass fiber mats yielding adhesive connections for aluminum substrates with 10.2 MPa pull-off strength. The adhesive connections are successfully debonded at the metal–adhesive interface by applying 120 V. The samples are then rebonded via the thermoactivated change in the networks’ viscoelastic properties and ≈80% (8.1 MPa) of their original bond strength can be regained. By providing a simple strategy to synthetize reversible adhesives, this approach paves a way toward improved recyclability and repairability of adhesively bonded structures.