29 сентября, 2015 
Pokraskin In recent years it has become apparent that natural material-based adhesives still have industrial importance. However, gene technology may make it possible to further develop these adhesive systems by skillfully influencing natural materials in such a way that advantage can be taken of adhesive systems already existing in nature. For example, barnacles are able to attach themselves to the surfaces of ships with a great durability that is not affected by water; yet, to change location, they simply debond themselves (probably by an enzymatic reaction). The chemistry of the barnacle adhesive system is only partly known, and obviously extremely complex.
It should also be noted that popular ecological aspects — that is, concerns about raw materials and recyclability — must not be overestimated as far as adhesives are concerned, since in quantitative terms, none of the products contain significant amounts of adhesives. As an example, around 100 kg of structural adhesive may be found in a large aircraft, while 7-15 kg is present in a bonded car body; hence, recovery is usually not profitable. It is important, however, to prevent those adhesive residues which remain on originally bonded components and are then recycled, from causing a significant impairment of the characteristics of any subsequent products. As mentioned above, organic natural materials are not suited to recycling where the aim is to recover the original material, because their durability is such that, for subsequent processing, the product characteristics will doubtless deteriorate in an unacceptable manner. On the ‘plus’ side, however, those products which are split off during the recycling of natural materials, as well as their residues, would generally not be expected to be ecologically harmful. Hence, in the field of natural, material-based adhesives, interesting specialties may be developed in future for which large-scale industrial applications will most likely be confined to the areas described above.
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