Reusable antifouling viscoelastic adhesive with an elastic skin.

Although the viscoelasticity or tackiness of a pressure-sensitive adhesive gives it strength owing to energy dissipation during peeling, it also renders it nonreusable because of structural changes such as the formation of fibrils, cohesive failure, and fouling. However, an elastic layer has good structural integrity and cohesive strength but low adhesive energy. We demonstrate an effective composite adhesive in which a soft viscoelastic bulk layer is imbedded in a largely elastic thin skin layer. The composite layer is able to meet the conflicting demands of the high peel strength comparable to the viscoelastic core and the structural integrity, reusability, and antifouling properties of the elastic skin. Our model adhesive is made of poly(dimethylsiloxane), where its core and skin are created by varying the cross-linking percentage from 2 to 10%.