{"id":233816,"date":"2026-03-22T06:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T11:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/mussel-inspired-glue-from-recycled-plastics-can-be-detached-and-reused"},"modified":"2026-03-22T06:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T11:10:09","slug":"mussel-inspired-glue-from-recycled-plastics-can-be-detached-and-reused","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/mussel-inspired-glue-from-recycled-plastics-can-be-detached-and-reused","title":{"rendered":"Mussel-inspired glue from recycled plastics can be detached and reused"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/mussel-inspired-glue-from-recycled-plastics-can-be-detached-and-reused2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Researchers at the Department of Energy\u2019s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have invented a reusable adhesive from waste polymers that is tougher than commercial glues, works underwater as well as in dry environments, and bonds a variety of materials, including wood, glass, metal, paper and polymers.<\/p>\n<p>Inspired by the way mussels stick stubbornly to surfaces, the innovative adhesive contains <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2024-09-mussel-adhesive-unglued.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\">reversible chemical crosslinkers<\/a> that allow the hardened glue to soften, detach and be reused, unlike current glues, which set permanently after one use.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s projects typically require different glues for different material surfaces\u2014white glue for grade-school art projects, polyvinyl acetates for bookbinding, polyurethanes for shoemaking, silicones for sealing windows and affixing electronic parts, and industrial epoxies for joining aircraft and automobile components.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at the Department of Energy\u2019s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have invented a reusable adhesive from waste polymers that is tougher than commercial glues, works underwater as well as in dry environments, and bonds a variety of materials, including wood, glass, metal, paper and polymers. Inspired by the way mussels stick stubbornly to surfaces, the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,32,1491],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-education","category-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}