The Pressure Sensitive Tape Council (PSTC), the leading North American trade association for pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) tape manufacturers and affiliate suppliers, has given its 2024 Carl Dahlquist Award to Dow Senior Scientist Joseph Binder, PhD, a second time win for Dr. Binder who also won the award in 2022. The award recognizes Dr. Binder’s research presented at Tape Week 2024, “Impact of Colloidal Silica Loading on Adhesive Properties and Film Morphology of High Performance Waterborne Acrylic Pressure Sensitive Adhesives.” Tape Week took place in Orlando, April 29 – May 2, this year.
PSTC presents the Dahlquist Award annually to a researcher who is advancing PSA tape technology. A panel of judges evaluates a range of criteria including originality, scientific contribution, quality of visuals and presentation quality. The award is named after the developer of the Dahlquist criterion of tack, which determines if the modulus value of a material is low enough to be considered a pressure sensitive adhesive.
In his award-winning research, colloidal silica was blended with a high solids waterborne acrylic PSA, increasing shear resistance and shear adhesion failure temperature while maintaining peel adhesion. Atomic force microscopy was used to examine the changes in film morphology with increasing colloidal silica level. This research offers potential environmental benefits for tape production because high solids waterborne PSAs like the ones used in this study decrease energy usage for transportation and drying.
“Congratulations to Dr. Binder on winning this prestigious award for the second time,” said PSTC President Joe Tocci. “His work reflects the innovative spirit of the award and its namesake. Dr. Binder’s research is pushing the PSA industry forward, and PSTC looks forward to his continued contributions to the organization and to the industry.”
Dr. Binder joined Dow Adhesives R&D in 2015 as a polymer synthesis chemist at Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Dow, he worked at BP in bio-based chemicals and fuels research. He completed a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2009. His work at Dow has resulted in numerous products for the tape and label pressure sensitive adhesive markets.
“I appreciate this great recognition from PSTC,” Dr. Binder said. “I would like to thank my Dow colleagues Kylie Kennedy, Edward Lee, Johnpeter Ngunjiri, Michael Mallozzi and William DenBleyker who made this work possible.”
