> “Since ethanol is the main component of hand sanitizer, we believe it is possible to de-bond and recycle the adhesive by using hand sanitizer as a substitute in certain real-world situations,” Aida says.

These sorts of environmental impact blurbs are hilarious. What kind of scenario are they envisioning where someone wants to remove and reuse a specialized adhesive bonding PTFE parts to something, but don't have ethanol on hand and have to fall back to using hand sanitizer?

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gizmo686 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

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.

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danbruc an hour ago | parent | next [-]

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.

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SV_BubbleTime 27 minutes ago | parent [-]

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

	▲	danbruc 19 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		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

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neoecos 35 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

3M will fight for this patent

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loeg 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Hand sanitizer is also contaminated with other crap... presumably that impacts the adhesive if you're attempting to "recycle" it? I agree, what a weird line.

	▲	bluGill 29 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Assuming it is even ethanol based in the first place, not all. (more than one alcoholic has ended up in the ER thinking all of them are)

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addaon 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

One example might be ungluing a lithium pouch cell (usually polyamide film outer surface, which is a pretty low-surface-energy polymer) for home replacement. Electrically-debonded adhesives are a better option here, but not sure what the cost trade-offs look like.

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colechristensen an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Gelled solvents are useful for softening adhesives in certain situations far better than the pure substance

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kazinator 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Maybe a 2026 remake of MacGyver?

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ortusdux 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Stick on nails