Peel and shear strength of pressure‐sensitive adhesives prepared from epoxidized natural rubber

Peel and shear strength of two grades of epoxidized natural rubber (ENR 25 and ENR 50)‐based pressure‐sensitive adhesive was studied. Coumarone‐indene resin was used as the tackifier, whereas toluene was chosen as the solvent throughout the experiment. The tackifier loading was varied from 0 to 80 parts per hundred parts of rubber (phr). A SHEEN hand coater was used to coat the adhesive on substrate to give a coating thickness of 30, 60, 90, and 120 μm. Peel strength and shear strength of the adhesive were determined by using a Lloyd adhesion tester and Texture analyzer, respectively. Results show that maximum peel strength occurs at 40 phr of coumarone‐indene resin for both ENRs studied an observation, which is attributed to the maximum wettability of the substrate. However, the shear strength shows a gradual decrease with increasing tackifier loading because of the decrease in cohesive strength of adhesive. ENR 25 consistently indicates higher peel strength and shear strength than ENR 50. Generally, peel and shear strength increases with coating thickness.