Generally, pressure-sensitive adhesives used for labeling on window glass and inorganic materials are required to have long-term durability under high temperature and humidity. It is well known that adhesive properties of pressure-sensitive adhesives are improved by the addition of silane coupling agents. So, it would be possible to control adhesive properties by analyzing dispersion behavior of silane coupling agents in the adhesive sheet. Nevertheless, the knowledge on the thorough roles of silane coupling agents has been scarcely presented as far as we know. Therefore, in this paper, we will report on an examination of the relationship between dispersion behavior of silane coupling agents in adhesive sheets and peel strengths. Adhesives were prepared by mixing acrylic ester copolymers, cross-linkers, and (3-glycidyloxypropyl)-trimethoxysilane, which were dissolved in ethyl acetate. Then, adhesive sheets were obtained by coating adhesives on polyester films.These adhesive sheets, containing the different amounts of the silane coupling agents, were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and XPS with sputtering using C60 cluster ions in some cases. The results of the XPS measurements demonstrated that silane coupling agents showed a tendency to localize in the immediate vicinity of the adhesive sheets surface. Furthermore, the peel strengths increased with the amount of the silane coupling agent after allowing sufficient treatment time. These findings suggested that the dispersion behavior of silane coupling agents contributed to the adhesiveness for inorganic materials.
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