Multi-Criteria Selection of Adhesives for Wearable Textiles

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Adhesion Science
• Textile Engineering

Background:

• Adhesive peeling behavior on soft substrates like textiles is crucial for flexible electronics and healthcare applications.
• Traditional peel testing methods may not fully capture the complex mechanical interactions between soft adhesives and flexible substrates.
• Characterizing commercial adhesives on fabric substrates is essential for developing reliable soft material applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a systematic, multi-criteria framework for evaluating adhesives on soft, flexible textile substrates.
• To compare the effectiveness of this new framework against traditional metrics like peel strength and fracture energy.
• To identify optimal adhesives for applications requiring flexibility and durability on fabric.

Main Methods:

• Utilized standard peel testing techniques to characterize commercial glues on fabric substrates.
• Developed and applied a multi-criteria evaluation framework focusing on T-peel trace shape and stability.
• Quantified energy dissipation and force oscillations during the peeling process.
• Conducted functional evaluations of adhesive performance, including strain-to-electrical-failure.

Main Results:

• E6000 exhibited the highest peel force and fracture energy but also significant force oscillations.
• Fabri-Fuse was identified as a superior adhesive due to low oscillation, low coefficient of variation in force (CoVFci), high peel stability index (PSI), and high displacement at break.
• Fabri-Fuse enhanced the strain-to-electrical-failure of the fabric substrate significantly compared to other adhesives and direct printing.

Conclusions:

• A multi-criteria framework analyzing peel trace characteristics and repeatability offers a more comprehensive approach to adhesive selection for soft substrates than peel strength alone.
• Metrics considering peel trace shape and inter-sample consistency are valuable for optimizing adhesive performance in flexible electronic and textile applications.
• Fabri-Fuse demonstrates promising properties for bonding and functionalizing textiles in demanding applications.