What exactly is the physical or chemical process that makes adhesive tape sticky?
Louis H. Sharpe, editor in chief of the Journal of Adhesion, provides the following reply to this deceptively complex question: “The simplest answer that I can give to the question is that pressure-sensitive adhesives (which are polymers) are ‘tacky’ or ‘sticky’ because they are essentially very high viscosity liquids that also have some elastic characteristics–in technical terms, they are ‘viscoelastic.’ This property means that they exhibit some of the characteristics of liquids, and so they will ‘wet’ a surface to which they are pressed. But then, because of their elasticity, they will resist separation when stressed. Thus, ‘stickiness’ is strictly a physical (viscoelastic) phenomenon, not a chemical one.” Benjamin E. Russ is a research assistant in the University of California at San Diego’s applied mechanics and engineering sciences department. He adds a few details: “There are two fundamentally different components of tape’s sticky nature; adhesion and cohesion. Adhesion is the
