Some factors affecting the adhesion between wool fibers and a polyurethane elastomer

The work to break the adhesive bond between wool and a polyurethane elastomer was found to depend on the surface tension of the liquid in which the composite was immersed. The work of ad hesion was also dependent on the temperature and the rate of separation of wool and polymer, which suggests that viscoelastic energy losses in the substrates also contributed to the adhesion between them. Perchloroethylene, which swells the polymer, decreased the work of adhesion relative to that observed in aqueous surfactant solutions of the same surface tension.