A Purdue University team added bonds that are broken easily throughout the material to strengthen the adhesive. Source: Jonathan Wilker/Purdue UniversityIn a bid to strengthen adhesives for the construction, electronics and airplane and automobile manufacturing markets, researchers from Purdue University are suggesting that adhesives can be made stronger by first making them weaker.

In the course of developing several different types of adhesives, the research team added easy-to-break bonds throughout their adhesive materials. Following the application of stress and pressure on these materials, the weakened bonds in the glue absorbed energy and then broke apart, while the remaining adhesive system endured.

This was possible due to the staggered placement of the weaker bonds throughout the adhesive. When force was applied, the mechanical forces and cracks lost energy, which broke those bonds rather than fracturing the entire adhesive structure. The design reportedly dictated how energy moved through the adhesive material, which strengthened it and made it less likely that it would deteriorate under mechanical stress.

During testing of the different bond types, the Purdue team determined the bonds that were neither too weak nor too strong performed the best.

The research appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.