The development of environmentally friendly, green, and
nontoxic
adhesives with excellent dry and wet adhesion properties is of great
attraction. In nature, barnacles and mussels exhibit strong adhesion
by secreting a hydroxyl-rich dopa. Inspired by their adhesion mechanism,
a simple biobased MAG-PETMP (MP) adhesive was prepared from magnolol
(MAG) and pentaerythritol tetra (3-mercaptopropionate) (PETMP) by
a thiol–ene click chemistry reaction. MP as an adhesive exhibits
high bond strength with other substrates due to hydrogen bonds formed
by the abundant hydroxyl groups at the interface and shows an inherent
thermosetting network structure. Since MP has a thermosetting network,
it exhibits excellent thermal stability, solvent resistance, and high
mechanical strength, which make the adhesive stable in a humid environment.
The cross-linking degree of MP can be easily controlled by adjusting
the molar ratio of MAG and PETMP. Among the synthesized samples, the
elongation at break of the MP 1 formulation is 174.27%, which makes
it promising for use as a flexible adhesive. Moreover, the inherent
antibacterial properties of MAG enable MP to exhibit antimicrobial
properties and antibacterial adhesion to some extent. This work provides
a simple biomimetic strategy that could enable the application of
MAG for adhesives.