If you think that adhesive tape is just something to stick wrapping paper, then you are missing out on a world where the vast array of adhesives are used to stick everything from car body parts together to securing human body parts to clothes. There are literally hundreds of different types of adhesive tapes for electrics, plumbing, glazing, arts and crafts, but did you know that in the history of adhesives they discovered that humble scotch tape can be used to produce x-rays?
There are a few basic categories of adhesive tape. Some are pressure sensitive such as Sellotape; some are heat sensitive, such as the seal on a cigarette packet; some require water to activate adhesive qualities, such as gummed paper; and finally others are known as dry-wall and are made of fabric mesh. There are obviously some adhesive tapes that combine these properties to produce an industrial tape with super hero style qualities.
My personal discovery of the x-ray producing variety was from an experience akin to something out of the X-Files. I have to admit that at first I thought I was going a little mad, as I had never before experienced something known as triboluminescence. Sitting in my darkened bedroom, I started to open a letter that had arrived that my son had kindly brought up to me. As I peeled back the flap there was a neon glow.
The glow was really quite bright and was reminiscent of a strip light that is used in aquariums. After a brief period of research I found out that the triboluminescent process is produced by the bonds in the adhesive tape being broken. If this is done in a vacuum, the strength of the chemical reaction is strong enough to produce an x-ray, and it has been shown that it is detailed enough to produce a finger print on photo sensitive paper.
This experiment strikes me as rather ironic as we have all witnessed the classic procedure used by forensic investigators that uses dust and adhesive tape to collect fingerprints from a crime scene. Ultimately, the strange experience opening an envelope has widened my understanding of the properties of something that is taken for granted so easily by so many. Adhesive tapes are not something that is limited to ideas inspired by Blue Peter or the need to wrap a present in pretty paper. They are in fact holding our everyday lives together more than we could ever imagine.
Author Resource:-
Dom Donaldson is an adhesives expert.
Find out more about Adhesive Tape and the applications of use from industrial glazing to arts and crafts at Adhere.
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