Strength and toughness of tissue adhesives depend on thickness

Adhesives are commonly assessed by two properties: strength and toughness. Here we study how strength and toughness are affected by adhesive thickness. We sandwich gelatin adhesives of various thicknesses between glass substrates. The transparency of the adhesives and substrates enables us to observe crack nucleation and growth. We measure strength by lap shear of samples without precrack, and measure toughness by lap shear of samples with precrack. Our data show a characteristic adhesive thickness, about 0.5 mm. For adhesives below the characteristic thickness, strength is independent of thickness, but toughness increases with thickness. For adhesives above the characteristic thickness, strength decreases as thickness increases, but toughness is a constant. Strength scatters narrowly for samples of a thin adhesive, but broadly for samples of a thick adhesive. By contrast, toughness scatters narrowly for samples of all thicknesses. This work shows the importance of assessing adhesives of various thicknesses.