[gizmo686]

Who says this will be a specialized adhesive? If it works as advertised, it could be a super-glue alternative with easy unglueability. That would be an attractive consumer product; and the type of product that could easily end up on someones hands.

[danbruc]

Superglue is probably two order of magnitude stronger, so I doubt that this will replace cyanoacrylates. And while ethanol or hand sanitizer will not help much with superglue, acetone or nail polish remover will remove it. Then again, acetone will attack more materials then ethanol, so a glue that can be removed with ethanol might still be beneficial.

[torginus]

Imo superglue is a shitty glue - it's far too strong and weak at the same time. It's strong in the sense that if you glue two thing together, you're unlikely to get them apart without damaging them.

At the same time, superglue's brittle, meaning if you handle objects that were glued together, they're eventually gonna come apart in your hands. There's a reason smartphone screens use some special mystery glue not CA.

The problem with acetone is that you can't really get the solvent to the surface that's glued, since that's often inside the object, so it's really tricky to use. It's also toxic and attacks basically everything that's plastic or painted, resulting in a lot of damage.

[murderfs]

> There's a reason smartphone screens use some special mystery glue not CA.

AFAIK, smartphone glues tend to be acrylic adhesives, which are just as brittle as cyanoacrylate. They get around this by not bonding the screen directly to the chassis with the glue, but having the adhesive carried on tape.

[SV_BubbleTime]

Also… Uncure is a popular brand of cyanoacrylate remover. This is already a solved problem it seems.

[danbruc]

Never heard that name, but according to their safety data sheet [1] it is 95+ % dimethylformamide [2]. Not too different from acetone, with a additional dimethylamin group. Acetone-free nail polish remover usually contains primarily ethyl acetate [3] which is also structurally similar.

[1] https://bsi-inc.com/sds_pdf/sds_un_cure.pdf

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethylformamide

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethyl_acetate

[entrepy123]

Wow, speaking of safety -- I just looked it up to see if Un-Cure superglue/CA debonder would be safe enough to use on hands, or would just cause the chemicals to be broken down and absorbed through the skin at a fast rate too (which I personally wouldn't want), and the initial results I see say that it's ok to use on hands. Wow again.

[fingerlocks]

Just like acetone.

[psd1]

I sensitised my hands with a single exposure to acetone, and now even isoprop gives me painful flaky fingers for days. I wish I'd worn chemical gloves.

[s0rce]

I've always heard of using nitromethane to remove super glue...

[refurb]

DMF is quite different than acetone.

As a chemist it’s a highly polar, very high boiling point solvent that is the “go to” when you can’t find a solvent your reactants dissolve in.

Acetone is less polar, more chemically reactive and lower boiling point. It’s rarely used as a reaction solvent due to its reactivity, but it is common in crystallizations.

Both are quite non-toxic (your body makes small amounts of acetone!), but I recall a cancer risk with high exposures of DMF (the example was tannery workers who sprayed it without any safety gear and got soaked).

[SV_BubbleTime]

It must be extremely low vapor pressure compared to acetone. Little smell and not an ultra airtight lid. Lasts forever.

[s0rce]

yes, DMF has a much higher boiling point. Its much more polar.

[pessimizer]

> Superglue is probably two order of magnitude stronger, so I doubt that this will replace cyanoacrylates.

Superglue doesn't work on Teflon, or most plastics you want it to work on. Wanting to glue plastic things together isn't exactly a niche need. Being able to remove that glue with hand sanitizer would be wonderful.

https://www.quirkyscience.com/how-to-glue-teflon/

[Melatonic]

Glue working on UHMWPE would be amazing too

[neoecos]

3M will fight for this patent

[jojobas]

A 1L bottle of denaturate is cheaper than 200ml bottle of hand sanitizer where I live.