Manufacturing news · November 2025
A strong adhesive that debonds in water points to take-apart products
Umehara, Miyazaki, Suzumura and colleagues demonstrated dismantlable adhesives made from meltable coordination polymers and metal-organic frameworks.
One material, a zinc phosphate-imidazole compound, achieved a shear bond strength of about 10 MPa on copper substrates, comparable to conventional structural adhesives. Crucially, bonded joints lost most of their strength after roughly one hour immersed in water at room temperature, allowing components to be separated by hand without heat or solvents. This debonding-on-demand under mild conditions tackles a central obstacle to circular manufacturing: strong adhesive bonds normally make products hard to disassemble for repair, reuse or material recovery.
Reversible joining chemistries like this could let manufacturers bond products firmly in use yet cleanly separate metals and parts at end of life.