{"id":242632,"date":"2026-08-13T01:27:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T06:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/recyclable-glue-bonds-underwater-in-seconds-and-holds-for-years"},"modified":"2026-08-13T01:27:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T06:27:25","slug":"recyclable-glue-bonds-underwater-in-seconds-and-holds-for-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/recyclable-glue-bonds-underwater-in-seconds-and-holds-for-years","title":{"rendered":"Recyclable glue bonds underwater in seconds and holds for years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/recyclable-glue-bonds-underwater-in-seconds-and-holds-for-years.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Most glues need a dry surface to stick properly. Bonding materials underwater is challenging because water forms a thin film on any surface, so instead of an adhesive touching a material directly, it touches a layer of water, which weakens the bond. But scientists from China have now created a superglue that repels water and forms a strong, recyclable bond within seconds, as they report in a paper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-76507-2\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in Nature Communications.<\/p>\n<p>To make their glue, the research team synthesized a supramolecular ionic liquid, a salt-like material whose molecules are held together by temporary, reversible interactions. They mixed it with a solvent called dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and applied the solution directly onto submerged objects made of ceramic, copper, epoxy resin and polyamide.<\/p>\n<p>When the mixture hits the underwater surface, differences in surface tension trigger a rapid motion called Marangoni flow that disrupts the thin layer of water on the surface. The DMSO solvent then diffuses outward, causing the molecules to reassemble into a tough, water-resistant adhesive within seconds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most glues need a dry surface to stick properly. Bonding materials underwater is challenging because water forms a thin film on any surface, so instead of an adhesive touching a material directly, it touches a layer of water, which weakens the bond. But scientists from China have now created a superglue that repels water and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1635],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-materials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242632","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=242632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242632\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}