Research progress on controlled disassembly adhesives

Adhesives are essential materials used to join substrates through adhesion and cohesion, playing a critical role in fields such as electronics, biomedicine, and packaging. However, traditional adhesives often present challenges during disassembly, particularly in maintenance, component replacement, and recycling processes. To overcome these limitations, adhesives with controllable debonding capabilities have been developed. By incorporating reversible chemical bonds or dynamic physical interactions into the polymer network, these materials respond to external stimuli—such as heat, light, or electric fields—enabling efficient detachment without damaging the substrate. This promotes material reuse and supports sustainability objectives. This review highlights recent advances in controllable debonding adhesives, with a focus on material design strategies, responsive mechanisms, and disassembly techniques. Applications in electronics assembly and biomedical devices—where rework ability is critical—are discussed in detail. Notably, many of these responsive mechanisms and material concepts are also relevant to emerging developments in organic coatings, particularly those involving smart interfaces and tunable surface interactions. Key challenges in balancing adhesion strength, disassembly efficiency, and environmental compatibility are addressed, offering valuable perspectives for the development of next-generation sustainable adhesives and related functional coatings.