Mechanical properties of a reversible adhesive used to separate adhesive joints

In this work, the mechanical characterization of adhesive joints made with athermoplastic adhesive, modified and not modified, has been presentedtogether with the separation tests that are possible by the use of metalnanoparticles embedded within the adhesive. A polyolefin adhesive has beenmodified with two weight concentrations (5% and 10%) of iron oxidenanoparticles. These particles increase their temperature under electromag-netic field; in this way, they are able to melt the adhesive and, therefore,separate the adhesive joints. The mechanical properties of single lap joints(SLJs) prepared with the neat and modified adhesives have been performed byusing different overlap lengths and thicknesses. SLJs prepared with thenanomodified adhesive present higher loads compared with the neat one.Separation tests have been carried out on SLJ specimens to measure the timesneeded to disassemble the adhesive joints. Scanning electron microscopeanalysis has been carried out to study the distribution of the particles.