Adhesives are an essential part of modern life. From furniture and construction materials to cars, electronics, packaging and everyday household products, glue helps hold countless objects together. However, most conventional adhesives are made using fossil-based chemicals, which can create environmental and health concerns during manufacturing, application and disposal.
Now, scientists have developed a promising alternative that could make adhesives stronger, safer and more sustainable. Researchers led by Ziwen Lv and his team have created a high-performance adhesive using xylan, a natural material obtained from a byproduct of the pulp industry.
The remarkable part is that this plant-based glue can achieve bonding strength of approximately 30 megapascals (MPa), outperforming traditional epoxy resins under the reported test conditions. Even more interestingly, it can be reused multiple times without losing its bonding performance.
The findings could open new possibilities for developing environmentally friendly adhesives for industries ranging from furniture manufacturing to construction.
Why Do We Need Better Adhesives?
Adhesives are widely used because they can join different materials without requiring screws, nails, welding or other mechanical fasteners.
However, many commonly used adhesives are produced from petroleum-derived chemicals. Their production can involve substances that may pose health and environmental risks. Some formulations also release volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can affect indoor air quality and contribute to pollution.
Another major problem is waste. Once conventional adhesives are used, separating bonded materials for recycling can be extremely difficult. In many cases, products containing permanent adhesives are simply discarded because the bonded components cannot easily be separated.
This creates challenges for industries trying to reduce waste and move towards a circular economy, where materials are reused instead of thrown away.
Scientists have therefore been searching for adhesives made from renewable natural resources that can deliver strong bonding performance without creating additional environmental problems.
Unfortunately, developing such adhesives is not easy.
Natural materials often struggle to provide the combination of strength, durability, heat resistance and reusability required for industrial applications.
The research led by Ziwen Lv addresses this challenge by turning an industrial byproduct into a powerful adhesive.
Turning Industrial Waste Into Powerful Glue
The key ingredient in the newly developed adhesive is xylan, a type of hemicellulose.
Hemicellulose is a natural carbohydrate found in plant cell walls, particularly in wood and agricultural materials. Along with cellulose and lignin, it helps provide structure and strength to plants.
Xylan is also produced in large quantities during the pulp and paper manufacturing process. Because it is often obtained as a byproduct of this industry, it represents an attractive renewable resource for producing useful materials.
Instead of allowing this valuable material to go to waste or be used in lower-value applications, researchers have explored how it could be transformed into a high-performance adhesive.
The team developed a xylan-based hot-melt adhesive.
Hot-melt adhesives are a special category of glue that are heated until they become molten or soft enough to spread over a surface. Once applied, they cool down and solidify, creating a bond between the materials.
These adhesives are commonly used in packaging, furniture, woodworking, footwear and various manufacturing processes because they can bond materials quickly without requiring traditional solvent-based application methods.
The researchers' approach combines the renewable origin of xylan with the practical advantages of hot-melt adhesive technology.
Bonding Strength Reaches Approximately 30 MPa
One of the most impressive results of the research is the adhesive's bonding strength.
Under optimal conditions, the xylan-based adhesive achieved a lap-shear strength of approximately 30 MPa when joining wood chips.
To understand this result, it is important to know what lap-shear strength means.
When two materials are joined by overlapping their surfaces, a force can be applied parallel to the bonded area to pull them apart. The maximum stress the adhesive can withstand before the joint fails is known as lap-shear strength.
It is an important measurement used to evaluate how effectively an adhesive holds two materials together.
The reported strength of approximately 30 MPa is particularly impressive because it surpasses the performance of classic epoxy resins in the reported comparison.
Epoxy adhesives are widely recognized for their strong bonding capabilities and are commonly used in construction, automotive manufacturing, aerospace applications and industrial repairs.
The xylan-based adhesive also performed far better than a commercial ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) hot-melt adhesive.
EVA adhesives are commonly found in everyday products, including packaging materials, furniture and footwear.
Achieving such high bonding strength using a renewable material derived from an industrial byproduct represents an important step towards sustainable adhesive technology.
However, the reported results are specific to the tested materials and conditions. Further testing will be necessary to determine how the adhesive performs across different industrial applications.
A Glue That Can Be Reused More Than 10 Times
Strong bonding is important, but another major challenge with conventional adhesives is that many are designed to create permanent connections.
Once two materials are glued together, separating them without damaging the surfaces can be difficult.
This makes repairs, recycling and material recovery more complicated.
The newly developed xylan hot-melt adhesive offers an interesting advantage: excellent reusability.
According to the researchers, the adhesive can be reused through multiple application cycles while maintaining its bonding performance.
Even after ten reuse cycles, it retained more than 100% of its original adhesion strength.
In other words, its measured bonding strength did not decrease after repeated reuse. Instead, it remained above its initial level under the reported testing conditions.
This is particularly interesting because adhesives are generally expected to lose some performance after repeated heating, application and recovery.
The ability to reuse the same adhesive multiple times could help reduce material consumption and manufacturing waste.
It may also provide new opportunities for products designed around repairability and recycling.
For example, reusable adhesive systems could eventually make it easier to assemble, disassemble and repair certain wooden products without constantly requiring fresh adhesive.
Such possibilities could be valuable in furniture manufacturing, woodworking and other industries where large amounts of adhesive are used.
Promising Results From Toxicity Tests
Environmental sustainability is not just about replacing petroleum-based materials with plant-based alternatives. The safety of the final product is equally important.
Some adhesives contain chemical ingredients that can create health concerns during production or use.
To investigate the safety of their new material, the researchers also conducted toxicity tests.
The results showed that the xylan-based hot-melt adhesive demonstrated good biocompatibility.
Biocompatibility refers to how well a material interacts with biological systems without causing harmful effects under the conditions tested.
This finding suggests that the adhesive could offer a safer alternative to certain conventional adhesive formulations.
However, good biocompatibility in laboratory tests does not automatically mean that a material is completely harmless in every situation. Additional testing would be needed to evaluate long-term exposure, environmental degradation and safety across different applications.
Nevertheless, the results provide an encouraging starting point for the development of safer adhesive materials.
What Could This Mean for Future Industries?
The combination of high bonding strength, renewable raw materials, reusability and promising biocompatibility makes this technology particularly interesting.
If further research and industrial development are successful, xylan-based adhesives could potentially find applications in several areas.
Furniture and woodworking: The strong bonding performance could make the material useful for joining wooden components during furniture manufacturing.
Construction: Renewable adhesives could eventually provide alternatives for selected wood-based building materials and construction products.
Packaging: Hot-melt adhesives are already widely used in packaging. Bio-based alternatives could help reduce dependence on fossil-derived materials.
Recycling and repair: Reusable adhesive technology could support products that are easier to repair, disassemble and reuse.
However, several challenges remain before the technology can be widely commercialized. Researchers will need to evaluate its long-term durability, performance under different temperatures and humidity levels, manufacturing costs and compatibility with various materials.
Large-scale production will also be important. A sustainable adhesive must not only perform well in laboratories but also be affordable and practical for industrial manufacturers.
A Step Towards More Sustainable Materials
The research led by Ziwen Lv and his team demonstrates how an industrial byproduct can become the foundation for a high-performance material.
By transforming xylan from the pulp industry into a powerful hot-melt adhesive, the researchers have shown that renewable resources can potentially compete with conventional fossil-derived products.
With a reported bonding strength of approximately 30 MPa, performance exceeding classic epoxy resins in the tested comparison, and the ability to retain more than 100% of its original adhesion strength after ten reuse cycles, this adhesive offers several impressive advantages.
Although more research is needed before it can replace conventional adhesives on a large scale, the development represents an encouraging step towards greener manufacturing.
The bigger idea is simple: instead of relying entirely on fossil-based chemicals, industries may one day use materials recovered from industrial waste to create stronger, reusable and more environmentally friendly products.
Reference: Lv, Z., Yan, X., Jia, S. et al. Bio-based hot-melt adhesive from xylan. Nat Sustain 8, 827–836 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01579-9
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