Polymer research shows potential replacement for common superglues with a reusable and biodegradable alternative 

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Researchers at Colorado State University and their partners have developed an adhesive polymer that is stronger than current commercially available options while also being biodegradable and reusable. The findings – described in Science – show how the common, naturally occurring polymer P3HB can be chemically re-engineered for use as a strong yet sustainable bonding agent. 

Adhesives are commonly used in automotives, packaging, electronics, solar cells and construction, among many other areas. Together they make up a roughly $50 billion industry that supports much of our modern life but also contributes to the mounting issue of plastic waste. The paper describes the team’s work using experimental, simulation and process modeling to develop a replacement polymer.

The project was led by University Distinguished Professor Eugene Chen in the Department of Chemistry. Other partners on the paper include Gregg Beckham at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Professor Ting Xu at the University of California, Berkley and researchers from their groups. 

Chen said that poly(3-hydroxybutyrate), or P3HB, is a natural, biobased and biodegradable polymer that can be produced by microbes under the right biological conditions. While the polymer is not adhesive when made that way, his lab was able to chemically re-engineer its structure to now deliver stronger adhesion than the common petroleum-derived, nonbiodegradable options when used on various substrates or surfaces such as aluminum, glass and wood. The adhesion strength of the re-engineered P3HB can also be tuned to accommodate different application needs.

The findings are part of a larger goal by Chen’s group to improve and expand our ability to tackle the global plastics pollution crisis. His team is involved in many efforts to develop chemically recyclable, biodegradable and, overall, more sustainable alternatives to today’s plastic materials. He said that while many people inherently recognize the life cycle issues that come with a disposable water bottle, adhesives present more daunting issues with fewer potential solutions. 

“Petroleum-based thermoset adhesives such as Gorilla Glue and J-B Weld, along with thermoplastic hot melts, can be very difficult or even impossible to recycle or recover – primarily because of their strong bonds to other materials,” he said. “Our approach instead offers a biodegradable material that can be used in a variety of industries with tunable or even higher strength compared to those options.” 

Ethan Quinn is a Ph.D. student at CSU and served as a co-lead author on the paper with postdoctoral researcher Zhen Zhang. Quinn said he and Zhang led work around the creation and testing of the material. 

“We developed a sample P3HB glue stick and were able to use it with a commercially available glue gun to test its application in sealing cardboard boxes and other properties on steel plates,” Quinn said. “I knew the data supported it being stronger than other options, but I was shocked that we were able to show that it far out-performs typical hot-melt options – holding up to 20 pounds in place compared to the 15 pounds an existing adhesive could not manage.” 


Chen said P3HB is biodegradable under a variety of instances, including managed and unmanaged environments. That means it will biodegrade naturally in landfills just as well as salty ocean water or soils, for example. That expands the range of possible options for dealing with the material at the end of its life cycle. The P3HB adhesive can also be recovered, reprocessed and reused. 

The CSU team will now start work on ways to commercialize the polymer for broad use.  

“We are working on two different approaches aiming for mass production, including ways to lower the overall cost and environmental impacts,” Chen said. “The analysis performed by the NREL team has identified key areas where we could make improvements, and we will continue to work with the BOTTLE Consortium on those scaling efforts.”

The work done at CSU and NREL was supported by the Department of Energy’s BOTTLE Consortium.

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